To say that the Jackson County Central softball team had a remarkable end to the regular season would be a bit of an understatement.
In a period of about 51 hours from early Tuesday evening to late Thursday night, the Huskies picked up five wins with wins over teams ranked high in the latest state ratings bookending three wins in their rescheduled tournament.
The stretch started Tuesday night with JCC winning 1-0 in 10 innings over Fairmont. The Cardinals are now tied for second in the Class 2A ratings.
On Wednesday Jackson County Central won three games in its own tournament, beating Murray County Central 10-6, New York Mills 6-2 and Worthington 7-4.
To complete the regular season the Huskies outscored Class 1A third-ranked Edgerton/Southwest Minnesota Christian 11-10 on Thursday in Edgerton.
Tuesday was Senior Night under the lights for the Huskies vs. Fairmont. But, after honoring their six seniors, it was a pair of freshmen and an eighth grader who stole the spotlight.
Pitchers Hadley Wachal and Mady Wachal would shut out the Cardinals for 10 innings.
Hadley Wachal allowed three hits and struck out nine in seven innings before Mady entered the pitcher’s circle and allowed two hits and fanned three in three innings.
Fairmont had the bases loaded with two outs in the top of the 10th, but catcher Bailey Finck tracked down a wild pitch and flipped the ball to Mady Wachal covering the plate for the final out.
Then in the bottom of the inning Finck hit a walk-off home run to left-center to give JCC the win.
Kevin Anderson caught the big moment on his phone:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1658670793100779521
That was the only hit of the game for the Huskies off Fairmont’s Tegan Livesay, who struck out 25. She has signed to play at Division I Southeast Missouri State University.
In the win over MCC on Wednesday, Brittany Tufvesson, Finck, Hadley Wachal, Alexis O’Reilly and Morgan Preuss each had two hits. CJ Pauling was the starting pitcher, with Brooklyn Stenzel recording the win.
O’Reilly had three hits including a two-run homer vs. NYM. Mady Wachal went the distance in the circle, giving up two hits and striking out 14.
Stenzel went the distance to get the win vs. Worthington, striking out six. Mady Wachal had three hits with a double and triple.
The Huskies then recorded the road win at Edgerton Thursday night to finish the regular season with a 12-8 record. JCC is seeded third in the South Sub-Section of the Section 3AA tournament and will play sixth-seeded Minneota/Canby at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in Luverne. Look for more on the section tourney in a future newsletter.