Jackson County Central is seeded seventh for the state Class 2A softball tournament and will play second-seeded Saint Agnes in a quarterfinal game at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Caswell Park in North Mankato.
The Huskies are the Section 3AA champions and have a record of 22-4. The Section 4AA champion Aggies are 22-2.
JCC is in the state tournament for the fifth time, the first since winning its second straight Class 2A title in 2005.
Saint Agnes is in the state tourney for the third straight year and the seventh overall. The Aggies played in the first state softball tournament in 1977.
Here is the schedule for the Class 2A state tournament:
Tuesday, June 3
At Caswell Park, North Mankato
Quarterfinals
All games at 3 p.m.
Upper bracket
No. 1 Randolph (23-1) vs. No. 8 Esko (17-8), Field 1
No. 4 St. Cloud Cathedral (23-2) vs. No. 5 Spectrum (20-0), Field 2
Lower bracket
No. 2 Saint Agnes (22-2) vs. No. 7 Jackson County Central (22-4), Field 3
No. 3 Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial (23-2) vs. No. 6 Hawley (25-2), Field 4
Wednesday, June 4
At Caswell Park, North Mankato
Semifinals
Both games at 4:30 p.m.
Upper bracket winners, Field 1
Lower bracket winners, Field 2
Consolation semifinals
Upper bracket losers, 11:30 a.m., Field 1
Lower bracket losers, 11:30 a.m., Field 2
Thursday, June 5
At Caswell Park, North Mankato
Third place
Semifinal losers on Field 3, p.m.
Consolation championship
Consolation semifinal winners on Field 3, 11 a.m.
Friday, June 6
At Jane Sage Cowells Stadium, U of M
Championship
Semifinal winners, 4 p.m.
About Saint Agnes
Saint Agnes School is a private, Roman Catholic Pre K-12 school in the Frogtown Neighborhood of St. Paul. It likely got the name Frogtown because the neighborhood was developed over several swamps and marshes, which were filled in over time.
Archbishop John Ireland referred to the area as “Froschberg” or "Frog City” because of the many frogs in the area originating from the swamps.
Tuition for Saint Agnes, according to the school’s website:
Preschool: Varies by days attending
Grades K-6: $6,500
Grades 7-8: $9,750
Grades 9-12: $14,550
The website says the school has a student-teacher ratio of 15 to 1.
Coaches
By day, JCC head coach Morgan Christopher is a paraprofessional at Riverside Elementary School.
Saint Agnes head coach Daniel Berthiaume is Chair of the school’s Latin Department.
This is Christopher’s sixth year as the Huskies’ head coach. Her first season was 2020, when the season was canceled.
Christopher’s teams have a record of 74-47, a .612 percentage.
Berthiaume is in his 12th season as coach of the Aggies and hit the 200-win mark for his career during the section tournament. His teams currently have a record of 202-95 (.680).
No home field
It doesn’t appear that Saint Agnes has a home field to call its own.
The Aggies played home games at five different sites.
Section championships
Five of the teams that made it to the state tournament had to play two games in their section finals.
Three teams (Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial, Esko, Hawley) won two straight to win their tournaments, while two others (Jackson County Central and St. Cloud Cathedral) lost their first championship game but won the second game.
Here’s how the state qualifying teams did in the champion round of their section tournaments:
1AA, Randolph Rockets: Randolph 3, Caledonia 1.
2AA, Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial Knights: Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 2, Jordan 1; Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 11, Jordan 8.
3AA, Jackson County Central Huskies: Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 3, Jackson County Central 2 (8 innings); Jackson County Central 7, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 2 (14 innings).
4AA, Saint Agnes Aggies: Saint Agnes 5, Visitation 3.
5AA, Spectrum Sting: Spectrum 6, Rockford 2.
6AA, St. Cloud Cathedral Crusaders: Kimball Area 8, St. Cloud Cathedral 5; St. Cloud Cathedral 10, Kimball Area 4.
7AA, Esko Softball Team: Esko 3, Rush City 0; Esko 3, Rush City 0.
8AA, Hawley Nuggets: Hawley 7, Roseau 6; Hawley 5, Roseau 3.
Runs scored
Runs scored per game by the teams in the state Class 2A softball tournament.
St. Cloud Cathedral 11.2
Spectrum 9.8
Jackson County Central 9.3
Randolph 8.9
Hawley 8.6
Saint Agnes 8.6
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 8.3
Esko 6.3
Runs allowed
Runs allowed per game by the teams in the state Class 2A softball tournament.
Spectrum 0.1
Randolph 0.5
Hawley 1.6
Saint Agnes 1.8
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 2.0
Jackson County Central 2.1
St. Cloud Cathedral 2.9
Esko 4.6
Finally scored on
Fifth-seeded Spectrum did not allow a run this season until the sixth inning of its 20th game.
Trailing Spectrum 4-0 after five innings of the Section 5AA championship game, Rockford started the sixth inning with a single, double and then another double that scored the only runs the Sting have allowed this season.
That means that the Sting have allowed only two runs in what looks to be 110 innings. In a few games it’s a little fuzzy as to whether they played 3, 4 or 5 innings due to the 10- and 15-run rules.
Splitting the pitching for Spectrum have been junior Addy Wallsachlaeger and freshman Reagan Wallsachlaeger.
Addison is a Minnesota-Duluth commit who plays for the 18U National Carter club team.
Reagan has been invited to tryouts for Team USA.
QRF rankings
These were the final QRF standings for Class 2A softball teams by minnesota-scores.net.
Saint Agnes 138.5
Randolph 133.6
St. Cloud Cathedral 133.0
Hawley 131.8
Jackson County Central 130.7
Spectrum 128.3
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 121.3
Esko 112.5
Coaches rankings
These were the final Class 2A ratings by the Minnesota Fastpitch Coaches Association. Listed are rank, team, poll points in parenthesis and last week’s ranking.
Class 2A
1. Randolph (59) 1
2. Saint Agnes (55) 2
3. St. Cloud Cathedral (40) 6
4. Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial (37) 4
5. Hawley (36) 5
6. Jackson County Central (34) 9
7. Rockford (30) 6
8. Visitation (27) 8
9. Spectrum (22) NR
10. Kimball Area (16) 10
Enrollment
Randolph 233
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial 266
Jackson County Central 288
Saint Agnes 307
Spectrum 435
St. Cloud Cathedral 380
Esko 375
Hawley 247
State tournament appearances
Appearances in the state softball tournament for the teams in this year’s Class 2A field.
Esko (10): 1987, 1995, 1996 A runner-up, 1999, 2007, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2025
Randolph (7): 2016, 2019, 2021 A champion, 2022, 2023, 2024 AA champion, 2025
Saint Agnes (7): 1977, 1983 A runner-up, 2017, 2018, 2023, 2024, 2025
Hawley (6): 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2025
Jackson County Central (5): 2000, 2002, 2004 AA champion, 2005 AA champion, 2025
St. Cloud Cathedral (4): 1977, 1986, 2022, 2025
Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial (3): 2009, 2024 AA runner-up, 2025
Spectrum (1): 2025
Back again
Three of the teams in this year’s Class 2A field were in the tournament in 2024.
In fact, Randolph and Saint Agnes are in the tournament for the third straight year. Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial, which was runner-up in last year’s tourney, is back for the second straight time.
Longest gap
The 20 years between state tournament appearances for JCC is the most among this year’s Class 2A teams.
The next longest gap is six years for Esko.
No mascot
Esko High School teams are completing their second school year without having a mascot and nickname.
The Esko School Board voted in June 2023 to discontinue the team’s name “Eskomos,” a version of a name Alaska natives generally find offensive.
The school’s teams are now known as the "Esko (sport/activity) Team".
A new Minnesota law prohibiting the use of Native American mascots and nicknames in public schools. The ban does not affect Minnesota school districts where 95 percent of the student body is Native American.
A Tomahawk Valley Conference school, Sleepy Eye, is changing its nickname from Indians to Storm. There is some irony in that given the name of the conference Sleepy Eye plays in, isn’t there?
Big South Conference schools
Seven of the 13 schools currently in the Big South Conference have played in the state softball tournament, making a total of 38 appearances.
Two schools make up the bulk of those appearances, with Pipestone qualifying 15 times and New Ulm nine. Jackson County Central and St. Peter have each gone five times.
Pipestone (15): 2001, 2003 AA runner-up, 2006, 2007 AA champion, 2008 AA runner-up, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023
New Ulm (9): 1982, 1983, 1984, 1993, 1997 AA runner-up, 2012 AA champion, 2013 AA champion, 2014, 2015
Jackson County Central (5): 2000, 2002, 2004 AA champion, 2005 AA champion, 2025
St. Peter (5): 1991, 2003, 2007, 2017, 2018 AA runner-up
Blue Earth Area (3): 1981, 1982, 2004
St. James Area (1): 1997 A runner-up
Waseca (1): 2009
Belle Plaine: 0
Fairmont: 0
Luverne: 0
Marshall: 0
Redwood Valley: 0
Tri-City United: 0
Windom: 0
Worthington: 0
State championships
Three current Big South Conference schools have won a total of five state championships.
Jackson County Central (2): 2004 AA, 2005 AA
New Ulm (2): 2012 AA, 2013 AA
Pipestone (1): 2007 AA
Schmidtke to state
One-time Martin County West coach Todd Schmidtke (the artist formerly known as TJ Schmidtke) is the head coach at United South Central, which is the number one seed for the Class 1A state tournament.
But it didn’t come without a battle from his former school in the finals of the Section 2A tournament on Thursday.
Schmidtke was the head coach of the football and baseball teams at MCW. He is also the head football coach for the Rebels.
USC, which was ranked first in every Class 1A poll conducted during the regular season, entered the championship round with a 22-0 record and got out to a 5-0 lead over the Mavericks after the first inning.
The Rebels didn’t get another hit the rest of the game and MCW rallied to win 6-5. After a weather delay, USC won the second game 6-0 to earn a spot in the state tourney.
Schmidtke’s team faces eighth-seeded Blackduck (22-3) in the quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Other classes
Quarterfinal pairings for the other classes in the state softball tournament
Class 1A
All games at 5:30 p.m.
No. 1 United South Central (23-1) vs. No. 8 Blackduck (22-3)
No 4 Braham (22-2) vs. Wabasso (19-6)
No. 2 Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley (23-1) vs. No. 7 Bethlehem Academy (16-4)
No. 3 Moose Lake/Willow River (18-6) vs. No. 6 Badger/Greenbush-Middle River (19-6)
Class 3A
All games at 12:30 p.m.
No. 1 Mankato East (20-4) vs. No. 8 Simley (14-10)
No. 4 Becker (16-9) vs. No. 5 Rocori (17-5)
No. 2 Chisago Lakes (19-4) vs. No. 7 Benilde-St. Margaret’s (12-12)
No. 3 Cretin-Derham Hall (13-11) vs. No. 6 Byron (15-6)
Class 4A
All games at 10 a.m.
No. 1 Forest Lake (22-1) vs. No. 8 Edina (15-9)
No. 4 Bloomington Jefferson (23-2) vs. No. 5 Brainerd (17-6)
No. 2 Champlin Park (21-2) vs. Eagan (15-8)
No. 3 Farmington (22-2) vs. No. 6 White Bear Lake Area (18-6)