Greyhounds lose dogfight at state

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NORTH MANKATO -- New Ulm Cathedral pitcher Julie Seifert has her graduation party today, and the perfect ending for the day would have been showing off a first-place medal around her neck to her friends and family.

But Seifert will gladly accept displaying the third-place medal after the Greyhounds lost 3-1 to St. Bernards in the Class A semifinals Friday night at Caswell Park.

Cathedral will play Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley at 2 p.m. today at Caswell Park.

"It's not as sweet as the first place, but we'll take third place," Seifert said.

The Greyhounds advanced to the semifinals after holding off a comeback attempt by first-time state tournament entrant Mountain Iron-Buhl. The Greyhounds led 5-0 after three innings, but the Wolverines attacked Seifert's pitching and finished the inning with four hits and two doubles en route to putting four runs on the board.

Seifert led off the top of the fifth with a base hit, but tornado warnings halted the game for nearly an hour and a half.

After the stoppage, the Wolverines had a chance to score some more runs in the fifth inning. Megan Downs singled and Lisa Thielen followed with a double, putting runners on second and third with one out. But Seifert got Becky Cerkvenik to line out to Cathedral third baseman Liz Prunty, who alertly tagged out Downs for the final out.

The Wolverines again threatened in the sixth inning with runners on first and second with nobody out. Mary Stukel singled and Jen Golobich reached on a fielders choice, but Cathedral catcher Jessica Stadick gunned down Stukel at third on a double steal attempt. Seifert struck out the last two hitters to get out of the jam.

Against St. Bernards, the Greyhounds struck first in the bottom of the first inning, and the way Seifert was throwing her change-up, the lead looked like it would hold up.

Becky Hosna walked and took second on Kyley Hillesheim's sacrifice bunt. Katie Stueber drove her in with a single to center for the 1-0 lead.

After allowing a lead-off hit to Molly Kroona, Seifert set down the next 15 batters before the mayhem ensued in the sixth inning.

Amanda Adolph singled at the No. 8 spot and Megan Madigan reached first safely after Kirsten Prunty couldn't handle a low throw on a sacrifice bunt attempt.

"I thought that was the critical one," Cathedral coach Bob Mertz said. "They have a runner on first base and they need to move a runner up, and that puts them in a situation where they maybe can score a run when they get a hit. It wasn't a real bad throw....our second baseman didn't get a real handle on it."

Kroona then loaded the bases when she hit a pop fly to left that was dropped. With nobody out, Andy Cossetta tripled down the left field line, giving St. Bernards a 3-1 lead.

"The real big one was the girl gets a big hit -- a crucial one -- and it breaks our back," Mertz said.

Nicole Tischler then hit a fly ball to right which was caught by Stueber who threw out Coseetta at the plate to keep it that way.

"Yeah, we gave them five outs," Seifert said. "We really should've had this game."

In the bottom of the seventh, Melissa Krause walked and Stadick promptly followed with a two-out single, but Laura Tischler got Hosna to strike out to end the game.

"I told them that if we could get one in the sixth maybe, and I told them 'let's get Jessica Stadick up,'" Mertz said. "She can get ahold of one -- she's got a nice upper cut. The No. 9 hitter, usually they play her in a little. I thought maybe she's got a chance to hit one out, and it just didn't happen.

"Hats off to them -- they played good defense," Mertz said.

Seifert struck out five in the loss and Tischler struck out nine and allowed two hits.

Seifert said it's important for her team to come into today's game with high hopes.

"We gotta keep our heads up," Seifert said. "I think we'll be more energized [today], coming off the two games. We had too many errors."