NORTH MANKATO \u2013 Last season, Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial softball lost its first game of the Class AA tournament, and even though the Knights got to play three games, they finished sixth.<\/p>\n
This season, the Knights are guaranteed of a better finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously big to win,\u201d senior pitcher Nettie Parsons said. \u201cNow, we know we\u2019re at least in the top four. It\u2019s a good step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top-seeded LCWM had several good signs Tuesday in a 9-0 victory over Esko In the opening game of the state tournament Tuesday at Caswell Park. Parsons pitched her third no-hitter of the season, Kylee Hall and Megan Stickler both hit long home runs, and there were no errors<\/p>\n
on the few balls that Esko put in play.<\/p>\n
Parsons struck out 14, including nine of the last 11 batters, and walked only one. The Knight scored at least one run in each of the last five at-bats.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always go out there and try to play loose and have fun,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the state tournament, so there were some nerves, but if we play like we can, we\u2019ll be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offense got a jolt when Hall led off the second inning with a blast over the left-field fence. Grace Thorson nearly made it back-to-back homers, but her liner hit the fence in right-center for a double. Two runs scored when Addison Voges\u2019 suicide squeeze and a throwing error, and Nettie Parsons added an RBI single to make it 4-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some games lately where we\u2019ve started slowly, and everyone gets nerves,\u201d LCWM coach Tony Parsons said. \u201cGetting off to a fast start made everyone feel OK.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sickler added to the lead with a sacrifice fly in the third, and Sydney Kramer had a two-run single in the fourth. Sickler homered in the fifth, and Piper Hellekson made it 9-0 with an RBI single in the sixth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese girls really don\u2019t change,\u201d coach Parsons said. \u201cThey could be 10 for 10 or 0 for 10; they stay steady. And if someone goes 0 for 2, they know there\u2019s eight other girls in the lineup that can pick them up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Knights, playing in their third straight state tournament, take on St. Cloud Cathedral in the Class AA semifinals at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Caswell Park. Cathedral defeated Rockford 6-3 in the quarterfinals Tuesday.<\/p>\n
LCWM defeated Cathedral 13-4 on May 2 at Caswell Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe girls have the goal of playing three games (at the state tournament) so we have achieved Goal 1 and we can move on to Goal 2,\u201d coach Parsons said.<\/p>\n
Goal 2?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to be playing Friday (in the state championship game),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTH MANKATO \u2013 Last season, Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial softball lost its first game of the Class AA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2309,5,2323,2314,2317,2313,2331,2335,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,1210,1039],"class_list":["post-715851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-ball-and-bat-games","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-batting-order-baseball","tag-home-run","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-softball","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116683686757101426","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}