NORTH MANKATO — Bloomington Jefferson softball coach Jim Hanson Jr. had a couple of players who knew they wouldn’t see much playing time this spring on the fence about whether to even play this season.
He convinced them to, telling them they could potentially be a part of a magical ride.
Was he ever right.
Jefferson will play in its first-ever state title game Friday after upsetting top-seeded Forest Lake, 3-2, in the Class 4A semifinals Wednesday. Jefferson will meet Champlin Park at 9 a.m. Friday at the University of Minnesota, where one program will win its first state title.
“I thought we could do it,” Hanson said, “and now we’re here.”
Forest Lake built leads of 1-0 and 2-1 early, but fourth-seeded Jefferson broke through in a meaningful way in the top of the fifth when Alexandra Oerther and Grace Rolek delivered back-to-back, two-out RBI singles to flip the advantage.
All three runs Jefferson (23-2) scored on Forest Lake ace Avery Muellner, a St. Thomas commit, were unearned. That was the story of the game. Two incredible teams making an abnormal number of mistakes in the field and on the basepaths, which can often be the case on such a stage.
“Forest Lake is an awesome team and a great program. … We made a ton of mistakes, they made mistakes, so it was one of those things where you keep plugging away. You look at the score and you say, ‘Hey, it’s 3-2,’ ” Hanson said. “We just keep trudging forward whether it’s perfect or not. Today was probably the most mistakes we’ve made all season.”
Forest Lake (25-2), which made its sixth straight semifinal appearance after downing Edina in Wednesday’s quarterfinals, wasn’t able to muster a serious threat against Jefferson’s Brooke Borwege over the final three frames.
“We came here knowing that we’re going to play good teams, and sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way. I think that was represented a bit there,” Muellner said. “But we fought our hearts out.”
CLASS 3A
Sixth-seeded Byron made a surprise run through the Class 3A state tournament and will play in the final Friday. Byron had 11 hits in its semifinal win over second-seeded Chisago Lakes.
Mackenzie Steele, Kaydence Fjerstad and Sydney Portner all had multiple hits for the Bears, who built an early 6-1 advantage in the semifinal and never looked back.
It was a different story in the quarterfinals.
Cretin-Derham Hall led Byron 2-1 with two outs in the top of the sixth inning of the Class 3A quarterfinals Wednesday morning before a couple of swings changed all of that.
Steele hit a double to knot the game, and Kaydence Fjerstad hit a two-run homer to power the Bears to a 4-3 upset of the third-seeded Raiders.
Byron tallied just four hits all day off Cretin-Derham Hall ace Brooke Nesdahl, but two of those left the yard. Meanwhile, Cretin-Derham Hall recorded eight hits, all from the top six batters in the order.
Hannah Yaeger went 2 for 3 while knocking in two runs for the Raiders, who loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, only to have Byron pitcher Natalia Behrens induce a ground ball to get out of the jam.
Class 2A
St. Agnes’ bid to reach a third straight state semifinal was cut short, effectively, in the first inning Wednesday.
Seventh-seeded Jackson County Central ripped off seven runs in the top half of the opening frame in an outburst powered by four hits, two walks and an error as the Huskies beat the second-seeded Aggies 10-0 in five innings.
The first five Jackson County Central (23-4) batters reached in order on: a walk, an infield hit to the pitcher, a fielding error, a strikeout where the batter reached on a wild pitch and a walk.
The first hit to the outfield came from the Huskies’ No. 6 hitter, Brielle Tufvesson. Her single plated a pair of runs.
That was more than enough run support of Huskies pitcher Hadley Wachal struck out 10 while surrendering just one hit. Gianna Regep had a single for the Aggies (22-3).
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