The No. 1-seeded Martin County West Mavericks had a chance to put themselves in the driver’s seat of the bracket with a pair of wins heading into Saturday. Despite not always looking pretty, head coach Darrell Ziegler’s team responded to adversity all afternoon long, taking home victories over No. 4 Cleveland and No. 7 Nicollet to place themselves into the section championship bout back at Caswell Park.

The Mavericks are now one win away from reaching the biggest stage Minnesota High School softball provides.

“Well, we got off to a good start,” Ziegler said. “I think we hit a little lull there, just kind of lost some energy. It gets to be a long day when it goes back-to-back like that. We made it interesting at the end there, but we finished at the end.”

Game 1

Photo by Jake Olson: Martin County West's Addy Wohlhuter walks back to her dugout after scoring a run during the Mavericks 7-1 victory over Nicollet in the semifinals of Saturday's Section 2A Softball Tournament in North Mankato.

Something had to give. MCW’s nearly perfect 22-1 record was one of the more impressive features of the section heading into Saturday. Their only blemish? A 9-2 loss versus Cleveland back on April 30. While the Mavericks exacted their revenge during the second game of that Thursday’s doubleheader, the quarterfinal matchup between these teams would break the regular-season split for good.

The grudge match between MCW and the Clippers was as advertised. Both Tomahawk/Valley Conference heavyweights landed a handful of punches in this highly anticipated thriller, matching each other score for score to push the contest into extra innings.

But the Mavericks responded to every blow they took. And in the bottom of the eighth frame, it was Bailey Larson delivering the knockout strike, ripping a two-out RBI single that plated Lillie Schultz and brought MCW the 3-2 victory. It’s the second walk-off they’ve had over the past four games, with the previous coming against Fairmont on May 15.

It started with the pitching matchup. Cleveland’s Delaney Thompson and Maverick ace Maddie Carlson forced opposing offenses to work for every hit they collected. Both arms piled a combined for 13 strikeouts. Offense was a premium.

The Clippers attacked first with their walk from Brooke Bosse setting up the second inning rally. Eight-hole hitter Anistyn Dauk sent a fly ball that just dropped before the glove of Ida Rohman in right field, rolling past the junior to give Bosse plenty of time to scamper home and score.

Photo by Jake Olson: Martin County West's Emily Schettler rounds second base after hitting a home run during the Mavericks 7-1 semifinal victory over Nicollet in Saturday's Section 2A Softball Tournament in North Mankato.

MCW’s answer showed early signs of its eventual key to victory. Ziegler’s middle to bottom parts of the batting order were the catalysts for offensive success against Thompson. The Mavericks’ final five hitters in the lineup tallied six hits and produced all three RBIs.

Courtney Anderson picked up her first of two base knocks with a sound-shattering double that found the left-center field gap. Two batters later, Emily Schettler found green grass up the middle to plate the equalizing run. The depth of Ziegler’s offense showed its stripes in a big way.

“That’s been one of our keys offensively all year,” Ziegler said. “It’s the top of the order, the middle, and the bottom of the order. The other night, it was the bottom of the order that came through with four or five hits. It definitely helps when you don’t have those easy outs in the lineup.”

Anderson struck again once more in the bottom of the third. Schultz’s single and a walk from Carlson put ducks on the pond for the Maverick senior. And with another hard drive into left field, MCW’s took the 2-1 advantage.

Carlson’s consecutive 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth came to a close with Cleveland’s own bottom of the batting order in the fifth frame. Dauk and Sandhurst reached base off a pair of hits that just went beyond the Maverick infield.

A Kaitlyn Flowers sacrifice flyout, two batters later, reached deep enough to right field for Dauk to score on the tag. But a nifty defense play by Schettler behind the plate threw out Sandhurst on her advance to third. An inning-ending double play to keep things even.

The arm of Carlson continued to stay steady over the final three frames. She allowed just two hits over that stretch to keep the score at a standstill, and even flashed some leather at the top of the eighth, turning Taylor McCabe’s hard grounder up the middle to an easy, inning-ending toss to first base.

It neutralized Cleveland’s opportunity to score with runners on first and second. Momentum from this play carried over to the game-winning hit for the Mavericks moments later.

Game 2

Fans of the Mavericks saw a familiar sight during the second game of the afternoon against the Raiders. MCW’s usual high-octane offense was a steady stream of consistency against the arm of Brielle Osborne, scoring runs in all but one inning en route to a much easier 7-1 victory.

Things started with a bang after Carlson and Anderson strung together consecutive hits via double and triple to score two runs in the bottom of the first. Rowan Faber had her lone hit of the game in the second inning, a single, that brought home Addy Wohlhuter from her spot at second. It was a 3-0 lead just like that.

“We’ve had good at-bats against this girl the first couple of times we’ve seen her,” Ziegler said. “But as I said, it’s just been consistency all the way through our lineup. It’s made such a difference.”

Nicollet made some noise of their own in the third to put a temporary end to the flames. Kamryn Truebenbach lofted her bunt attempt over the charging Maverick infield to safely reach first base.

Her successful attempt to steal second was immediately followed by Chloe Kachelmeier’s hard hit up the middle to add one run back. But this was all the Raiders could muster from Carlson. The hard-throwing right-hander concluded her second straight complete game with 12 strikeouts and six hits allowed. Ziegler was nothing but impressed with his junior’s performance in the circle.

“A very good job in that first game, but did start to tire out at the end of the second,” Ziegler said. “But on the entire day, she did a really good job on her locations.”

Schettler put an early exclamation point on the contest in the bottom of the fourth. Her charge over the deepest part of the ballpark only added one more run to the Maverick total, but it was a literal swing of momentum that continued to push the offense forward.

Anderson and Rohman brought in the final three runs in the fifth and sixth innings with their RBI singles. MCW’s bats tallied 10 total hits while not striking out a single time. Five different players finished with an RBI.

MCW will next play either No. 2 United South Central, No. 3 New Ulm Cathedral, or Nicollet once more this Thursday. Game one is scheduled for 5:00 p.m., with game two following right after if the Mavericks lose the first. Both contests will be played on Field 4.