Zumbrota-Mazeppa Will Play for a State Championship

The Zumbrota-Mazeppa Cougars will play the Pequot Lakes Patriots for the State Class AA softball title Friday and the game will be broadcast on KDHL Radio, 920 AM.

Zumbrota-Mazeppa senior lefty Morgan Olson was locked in, allowing just one hit in the first game and two hits in the second contest in 2-0 and 2-1 victories.

In the first game the Cougars left eight runners on base and six of them were in scoring position, and in the second contest they stranded seven runners and five of them were in scoring position.

In the first inning of the first game, Zumbrota-Mazeppa had runners at first and second to start the game and did not score and also had bases loaded in the fourth with one out and did not score.

Their two runs came in the second when Lyndsay Quam led off the inning with a single and was sacrificed by Kathryn Hodgman to second base.

Designated player Dacia Anding bunted the ball and the catcher attempted to get the lead runner but was unsuccessful and the Cougars were in business with the bases loaded after a walk to catcher Aubrey Reuter.

Morgan Olson then smacked a 2 RBI single plating Quam and Anding and it was all she would need for a cushion.

Olson threw 107 pitches with 70 strikes and struck out nine Rebels while walking just one batter.

She was one of our Lyle Wendroth State Farm Insurance Cougars of the Game along with Reuter and third baseman Laura Drackley.

Drackley made a stab of a hard-hit ball to her left and then threw a runner out from her knees.

Reuter pounced on a ball bunted in front of the plate and threw out the batter to end the game.

In addition to Olson's pitching prowess, she was on base three of the four times up including a couple of hits and two RBI's.

In game two, Cougar head coach Kevin Nelson predicted a pitcher's duel and that's exactly what it was.

Olson is heading to North Dakota State University to play softball and the pitcher for Le Sueur-Henderson, Carlie Brandt, will be a Minnesota Gopher in the fall.

Zumbrota-Mazeppa's first run was a homer to right center off the bat of Natalie Majerus.  It was her fourth of the season.

The Giants tied the game in the bottom of the sixth in a weird turn of events.

The scoreboard indicated there were two strikes on a L-H batter, that's what I had and everyone around me who was keeping pitch counts agreed when Kalie Devine swung at a pitch that she had struck out for the third out.

Even Devine thought she was out, running toward the dugout but was called back to the plate when Le Sueur-Henderson questioned the count and the umpire said there were two strikes.

Devine then got on base on an error and the Giants scored a run on the play to tie the game.

Even the Giant broadcasters asked me after the game if I had two strikes and then three outs because they had it that way in their book also so I didn't feel quite as bad about possibly missing something.

I know the umpire clicker is the only count that matters, but I can't imagine every single person covering the game among the press and the scoreboard operator all being on the same page and getting it wrong.

I give Olson a ton of credit because she was also heading off the field thinking the third out had been recorded and had to go back to the pitching circle and shook that off and the error to strand a runner at third base to end the sixth with the game tied at one.

With one out in the top of the seventh, Olson hit a screaming triple to the fence and Nelson appeared to me to be waving her home but she stopped at third base.

The ball was thrown in to the third baseman who never called time and threw the ball over the head of the pitcher, scoring Olson with the game-winning run.

In the bottom of the seventh, Olson struck out her ninth and 10th batters of the game and the game ended on a ground out to third.

Brandt finished the game with 16 strikeouts in the Giants' 6-0 win over Esko in their opener.

The future Gopher allowed five hits and walked nobody while hitting a batter.

Olson finished the game with a two hitter (both hits by Brandt) walking one and striking out ten while throwing 97 pitches, 68 for strikes.

Our Lyle Wendroth State Farm Cougars of the Game were Olson and Majerus.

In addition to Olson's pitching in the second game she had a double and a triple and scored the winning run in the seventh.

The difference in the game really was fielding with the Cougars committing just one error and the Giants had four miscues.

Pequot Lakes had a pitcher's duel in their semifinal game also, a 2-1 win over the Rockford Rockets.

In the final coaches poll Pequot Lakes was rated No. 4 in Class AA and Zumbrota-Mazeppa No. 1.

The Cougars have not lost to a Minnesota school all year.

The Class AA Championship game has a 2PM scheduled start and if they are on time coverage will begin 1:45PM on KDHL Radio 920 AM.

You can also listen online at www.kdhlradio.com or download the FREE Radio Pup app and listen on your favorite mobile device.

The other Hiawatha Valley League team in the tournament, Hayfield saw their season come to an end Thursday.

The Vikings fell to Cherry 7-3 in their first game and lost a heartbreaker 5-4 in 10 innings in the second to finish their season 18-9.

Sophomore Carrie Rutledge led off the game with a home run for Hayfield but they appeared a bit flat during the game for some reason.

Not a lot of energy shown by the team.

Senior catcher Grace Mindrup had a few hits including a two run homer in the fifth inning.

In their second game Hayfield had more life with 10 hits in the game compared to the 13 strikeouts they had in game one.

Mindrup had three hits including two doubles and an RBI and sophomore Maggie Streightiff had 3 RBI's on a pair of hits including a homer.