MINSTER — A big four-run third inning allowed the Minster Wildcat softball team to win their fourth Midwest Athletic Conference championship in the last five years Tuesday evening as they defeated the New Bremen Cardinals 5-3 in front of a Senior Night crowd at Minster.
“It is better to be lucky than to be good,” Minster head coach Robb Hemmelgarn said. “We want to build on this. We want the situation where the other teams punch us in the mouth and force us to dig deep and we welcome that situation.”
“We just couldn’t get that big hit in the sixth inning,” Cardinals Head Coach Gary Moeder said. “With the bases loaded and one out, we had Allison (Hays) and Ella (Pape) both up. They delivered for us most of the year, but that is the way it goes.”
The Wildcats struck first with four runs in the bottom of the inning.
With one out, Brooklyn Osterloh drew a walk and stole second. Addi Inskeep came in as a courtesy runner. Reece Albers drew a walk and Rylin Trego was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Lindy Hemmelgarn laced a double to center to score Inskeep and Albers and give the Cats a 2-0 lead.
Trego scored the third run on a wild pitch and Hemmelgarn scored on a ground out to short by Mackala Hoskins.
In the top of the fourth Kacie Albers replaced Osterloh on the mound for Minster and she started to get into trouble right away.
With one out, Alivia Dammeyer smacked a single to left and Mackenzie Bornhorst singled over. Lauren Homan drew a walk to load the bases, but Albers recovered and struck out Jenna Rismiller and Adrianna Heitkamp popped out to second to end the threat.
In the bottom of the fourth inning Olivia Thornton replaced Alalayna Ross on the mound for New Bremen.
Minster added a run in the fourth inning.
Albers led off with a single and went to second on an error by the third baseman. Trego bunted Albers over to third and scored on a sacrifice fly to center to make the score 5-0.
The Cardinals broke up the shutout in the fifth inning.
With two outs, Ella Pape singled and Lydia Bushman came on as a courtesy runner. Alayna Ross laced a double to center that scored Bushman, but Ross was tagged out at third to end the inning.
The Cardinals concluded the scoring in the sixth inning.
Alivia Dammeyer led off with a single to left and Bornhorst smacked a homerun to left to make the score 5-3. Osterloh came back on the mound and gave up a single to Homan who went to second on an error. Sarah Dwenger came in as the courtesy runner. Rismiller popped out, but Heitkamp was hit by a pitch. Thornton singled to left, but after a lengthy discussion and a look at the rulebook it was determined that there was no interference and the bases remained loaded. Osterloh recovered and got a strikeout and a fly out to end the inning.
“I just wanted to double check to be sure it wasn’t interference,” said Hemmelgarn. “We thought it might be interference, but the pitcher touched the ball first to eliminate interference.”
ting star for Minster with a pair of hits including a single and a double and a run batted in.
Osterloh picked up the victory for Minster going five innings giving up no runs on two hits. She struck out seven and walked two and hit a batter.
Minster has three seniors playing in their final season in Kaycie Albers, Kennedy Korte and Lyndi Hemmelgarn
“They are a small group of girls who have been playing together since fourth and fifth grade,” Hemmelgarn said. “These girls have been tremendous. They eat, breathe and sleep softball and we are sad to see them go but we are thankful for what they have done for us and we still have a couple of games left with them.”
“We have some things to work on,” Moder said. “Hopefully we will see them in a week or so in the tournament and switch the score on them.”
The Cardinals also have three seniors in Ella Pape, Allison Hays and Lauren Homan.
“Allison has been our starting shortstop for three years,” Moeder said. “She puts in a lot of effort and works to get better. Ella is one of those girls who has done anything we ask her. We put her behind the plate last year and that was one of our best moves. Lauren usually comes through with a big hit for us in games.
The Wildcats finished in a tie with Parkway for the MAC title at 6-1. Overall they are 21-3 and will play Lima Central Catholic at home on Thursday in a sectional tournament game, while New Bremen, now 9-3 and 4-3 in the MAC, will entertain Upper Scioto Valley on Thursday in the sectional finals.
MINSTER 0 0 4 1 0 0 5-7-1
NEW BREMEN 0 0 0 0 1 2 3-10-2
WP — Osterloh (MIN): LPThorton (NB)
HR Bornhorst (NB) DBL Ross (NB): Hemmelgarn, Hoskins (MIN).
