Photo by Jake McNeill: Russell-Tyler-Ruthton third baseman Gabi Borresen sprints from second base during the Knights’ 10-0 five-inning win over Moose Lake/Willow River in the first round of the Class A state tournament at Caswell Park in North Mankato on Wednesday. The Knights will face top-seeded New Ulm Cathedral in the Class A semifinals today at 4:30 p.m.
NORTH MANKATO — After a pair of runaway wins in the Class A softball quarterfinals, the No. 4 Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights and No. 1 New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds will both face even more adversity when they face off in the state semifinals today.
The Knights steamrolled through their first-round matchup by a final score of 10-0 in just five innings, courtesy of four runs in each of the first two innings.
Cathedral’s game was nearly equally lopsided in terms of final score, 8-1, but was close for the majority of the game. Its opponent, Kelliher Northome, had an early 1-0 lead but Cathedral answered with one run in each of the next two innings and another three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to pull away late.
Jenna Hotovec, Alexa Hornick and Madelyn Haala were the engine of the Greyhounds’ offense on Wednesday with two hits each. Hornick and Haala had a triple and a double respectively while Hotovec drove in two runs.
Hotovec has been a driving force for the Greyhounds’ success at the plate all year. The senior center fielder’s seven home runs and 48 RBIs are both team-bests and her 1.238 OPS trails only Kiah Helget’s 1.389 mark. Helget, a shortstop, has also mashed five homers and 34 RBIs this season.
Even beyond those two, the Greyhounds are a team loaded with depth throughout the lineup. Ava Schmid has put together a 1.270 OPS while Hornick, Ava Brennan and Abbey Hillesheim are each over the .900 mark, helping the team to a 1.003 team OPS.
Still, the numbers still have RTR’s duo of Kya Alderson and Laken Baartman as the game’s two strongest hitters. The RTR pitcher-catcher duo has been able to hit for power and contact all year long. Alderson hit a team-best .711 on-base percentage in the regular season, followed by Baartman’s .671 mark. In terms of power, Baartman has mashed 17 homers on the season to date, just two shy of Cathedral’s team total, while Alderson has added another five.
Still, the deciding factor in today’s game will be Cathedral’s ability to keep up with RTR’s pitching. Hillesheim and Jayda Altermatt have both been strong arms for the Greyhounds. In the quarterfinals, Hillesheim pitched two innings, allowing one run on four hits and a walk, while Jayde Altermatt pitched five hitless shutout innings to close out the game. Altermatt struck out 10 batters while allowing just two walks.
Still, Alderson — the reigning Independent Player of the Year — remains among Class A’s premier arms. The RTR senior struck out nine of the first 10 batters she faced in her quarterfinal shutout effort and has averaged more than two strikeouts per inning over the course of the regular season. Hillesheim’s 2.20 ERA over 79 2/3 innings and Altermatt’s 1.64 ERA over 55 2/3 frames are both top-tier numbers, but neither compares to Alderson’s astonishing 0.90 ERA and 0.69 WHIP over the course of the year. Someone will need to step up in the clutch for the Greyhounds to match the Knights.
Today’s game is also a matchup of two teams with far different histories. The Greyhounds are a blue blood, with their 17 tournament appearances ranking second in the state to Hermantown’s 23 and their seven state titles tying St. Bernard for the most in the state.
RTR, on the other hand, is new to the success. While they had been knocking on the door for some time, they had never appeared in a section championship game before this season, let alone the state tournament. Yet, they looked right at home in their debut on the big stage and will look to keep that momentum rolling today.
First pitch between New Ulm Cathedral and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. today at Caswell Park Field 3 in North Mankato.
