Dawgs going to state
JCC advances after long night of softball
Even after a couple of days to think about what to write, it’s still difficult to summarize what happened over the course of six hours, 22 innings and 662 pitches Thursday evening in Marshall.
But the main item to take away is this: the Jackson County Central softball team is going to the state Class 2A tournament for the first time since any of the players were born. The last trip to state was in 2005 when the Huskies won the second of back-to-back state titles.
JCC was the final unbeaten team in the tournament. On Wednesday, the Huskies completed a 3-2 win over Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta in an eight-inning game spread over two days. The Tigers would make their way to the tournament’s championship round later that evening with a 1-0 win over Dassel-Cokato.
In the finals on Thursday, MACA beat JCC 2-1 in another eight-inning game to force the “if necessary” game.
In the second game the Huskies scored twice in the top of the third and the Tigers scored two in the bottom of the fourth.
And then neither team scored for its next nine trips to the plate until the Huskies scored five in the 14th.
How did JCC score more runs (five) in one inning than it had (three) in the previous 21 innings that day?
Jackson County Central coach Morgan Christopher wasn’t exactly sure how it happened, but she was very happy that it did happen.
“It was surreal,” she said. “I got back to the dugout, and I was ‘how did that just happen?’ And we were all like ‘I don’t really know’ but we were glad it did.
“We knew we could hit the Morris girl, but a lot of credit to her. She competed as hard as we did. The difference is we were able to use two pitchers and Morris didn’t, but credit to her but in the end the Dawgs are on top and the Dawgs are going to state!”
JCC scored all of those 14th inning runs after two were out.
With one out, Lauren Johnson and Cora Pauling both singled and then they stole second and third, after which the Tigers walked No. 9 hitter Miley VanDeVere to load the bases.
The second out was made at the plate on an infield grounder, so the score was still tied at 2-2.
Mady Wachal singled to score Miley VanDeVere to make it 3-2. That hit sent Pauling to third and as Mady Wachal was advancing to second on the throw to the plate, the ensuing throw to second allowed Pauling to score to give the Huskies a 4-2 lead.
Finck was walked intentionally for the second time in the game to load the bases again.
There’s an adage in softball that as a hitter you at least want to put the ball in play because good things can happen and that proved to be the case for Braelyn Boogerd as he infield grounder resulted in a Tiger error that allowed three JCC runners to score and the Huskies now had a 7-2 advantage.
Hadley Wachal struck out the side in the bottom of the 14th and the Huskies had scanned their ticket to the state tournament that starts Tuesday.
“Honestly, it’s kind of like a dream right now,” Hadley said. “It’s like the middle of the night, it’s so late. We all said, ‘Wow, did we actually just do that?’ We’ve worked so hard for this moment all year round. So many girls work in the offseason. It’s great to know that we accomplished that goal we’ve worked so hard for.”
Hadley and the Huskies shut out the Tigers for the final 10 innings, but MACA left runners on base in seven of them, including leaving the bases loaded in the 11th after having them filled with one out. Hadley got two strikeouts (one swinging and one looking) to get out of the inning.
“That was an intense inning,”: Hadley said. “It was crazy. My legs were giving out; I was so tired. That many innings is so exhausting as a pitcher.” She said her previous high for innings in one day in a high school game was 10 innings vs. Fairmont in 2023.
“My only mindset was just push as hard as you can with your legs, as hard as you’ve ever pushed off and trust my mechanics and all my hard work over the years and it just worked.”
Hadley allowed 10 hits in the game, walked four and struck out 19. She threw 235 pitches, 154 for strikes.
Haley Miller took the loss for MACA, allowing 14 hits, walking three and striking out 13.
Pauling was 4-for-6 at the plate for JCC, Mady Wachal was 3-7 and Boogerd was 2-7.
“I don’t know if it has hit me yet because it did go 14 innings and we were deadlocked from the fourth inning on,” said coach Christopher. I do know that the coaching staff is incredibly happy for this team and incredibly proud of them.
“This is something that has been in the making for quite a few years now and we’re so happy to see them succeed and have this moment that they get to enjoy.”
Christopher said it was a great match with the Tigers over the three days and three bus rides to Marshall.
“They have a nice lineup too,” she said. “They have some kids that you’re kind of happy when they got out, but then those kids keep coming to bat a little later and you’re like ‘let’s hope nothing happens here.’ But Hadley was so locked in that it wasn’t much of a thought, but it’s always in the back of your mind when you’re the visiting team.
“Our kids were awesome,” she continued. “They were in a ton of jams. They had bases loaded with one out, bases loaded with two outs and three balls on the batter. Our kids continued to be resilient and not give in. They find ways to get outs and it’s really fun to watch them.”
On the field after the game Hadley Wachal acknowledged that they could have been done playing more than four hours earlier and everyone could have been home by then, but it was also a lot of fun the way the night played out.
“It would have been fun to win the first game, but I think it was more fun to win in 14 innings,” she said. “Now we just want to keep winning and get to the state championship game.”
In Thursday’s first game, JCC’s lone run came in the second when Boogerd tripled and scored on a passed ball. MACA’s runs came in the fourth and eighth innings.
Mady Wachal took the loss as she allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits, walking four and striking out 12. She threw 139 pitches, 85 for strikes.
Kill got the win for the Tigers one run on five hits, walking two and striking out five.
Kinley VanDeVere had two hits for the Huskies including a double.
Kill was the only pitcher MACA used. Her numbers over the four games from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday night:
Innings: 37
Runs: 11
Earned runs: 7
Hits: 23
Walks: 10
Strikeouts: 42
Pitches: 493
Strikes: 344
The Huskies (22-4) are seeded seventh for the state tournament. They’ll play second-seeded Saint Agnes (22-2) in the quarterfinals at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Caswell Park in North Mankato.
More on that in a separate newsletter.
