Owatonna, Blooming Prairie, NRHEG Softball Open Playoffs at Home

The Owatonna High School softball team opens the Section 1AAAA playoffs at home Tuesday, June 1. As the fourth seed they will face Farmington, the fifth seed, who beat the Huskies 2-1 in mid-April. Owatonna (11-9) has a slightly better record the the Tigers (9-11). Plus a win over No. 1AAA Mankato West in the last week of the regular season could have swayed the coaches vote.

Game time Tuesday is 4 pm. Tickets will be available at the gate at Morehouse Park. Win or lose, the teams advance to Todd Park in Austin on Thursday, June 3. Northfield is the top seed and will have either Rochester Mayo or Century who square off in a play-in game. The Raiders won the section and state tournaments in 2019.

The other side of the bracket has Rochester John Marshall (No. 7, 14-6) at Lakeville North (No. 2, 13-5) and Lakeville South (No.6, 8-10) at New Prague (No. 3, 12-7).

NRHEG and Medford find themselves in a challenging Section 2AA field that includes the top-rated team in the state, LeSueur-Henderson (17-1), in addition to Lake Crystal-Welcome Memorial (18-1) AND Belle Plaine (13-5).

The Panthers (18-2) are the fourth seed and will host Blue Earth Area.  The Tigers (6-13) are the ninth seed and play at Fairmont (6-13). First round is single elimination with games Tuesday at 5 pm.

Blooming Prairie is the fourth seed in Section 1A despite a sub-.500 record. BP (7-12) will entertain Southland (7-11) Tuesday at 5 pm. First round is single-elimination. The winner will face No. 7 ranked in the state Waterville-Elysian-Morristown on Thursday.

Triton softball goes on the road Tuesday as the fifth seed to play at Grand Meadow-Leroy-Ostrander-Kingsland. The winner faces top-seed and No. 4 rated Zumbrota-Mazeppa in Thursday's subsection semifinals.

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