WHS softball gears up for Section 2AAA playoffs

May 20—Regular season play is over for the Worthington High School softball team as it now prepares for the upcoming Section 2AAA playoffs.

Section play starts Thursday at Caswell Park in Mankato where the Trojans are the No. 6 seed. They'll face a tough opponent for the third time this year in the third-seeded New Ulm Eagles at 5 p.m.

The Eagles are 16-3 this spring with two of those wins coming against the Trojans by a combined score of 27-2. They are also fresh off an 11-5 win over Jackson County Central in the Big South Conference championship on Saturday. They are also ranked third in the latest Class AAA poll by the Minnesota Softball Coaches Association.

While facing New Ulm is a tall task ahead for the Trojans, they'll have a week off before their playoff clash. That'll help head coach Avery Wysong's team prepare and get rested.

"I think we just need our bodies to recover honestly," said the third-year coach. "It's nice that we have until Thursday to do that but I think just getting our bats going again. I feel like at the beginning of the year it was going a lot better for us so just getting that back."

The Trojans did start off the season nicely with a 2-0 start after wins over Waseca and Marshall. Then came a brutal part of the schedule against St. Peter, Redwood Valley and a doubleheader with Tri-City United where they lost four straight.

WHS bounced back with a nice 7-4 road win at Fairmont, who was undefeated at the time, before wins over Waseca and Marshall again. After that, the rest of the Trojans' schedule came against some of southwest Minnesota's finest teams.

They dropped four straight games to St. Peter, Albert Lea and New Ulm twice. Then at a tournament in Jackson came another game with Albert Lea and a matchup with state-ranked JCC.

The season then ended last week with losses to St. James Area, Luverne and Windom Area. Even though the Trojans are on a nine-game losing streak going into section playoffs, it came against stiff competition that went a combined 87-51.

"I feel like they've listened to what Ashlyn (Wendland) and I have to say and buying into that," Wysong said. "We told the girls if we tell you to do something and it doesn't work, that's on us. They have to be able to trust us and do what we say so I think they're doing a good job of that, either adjusting or doing what we say up to bat."

Leading the Trojans this season have been the senior duo of Bailey Ponto and Hannah McNab. Ponto, a pitcher and infielder, is batting 0.417 with seven runs batted in and a home run and has thrown 58 strikeouts in 83.2 innings in the circle. McNab is the team's shortstop and leading hitter with a 0.482 batting average, 19 RBIs and four home runs.

Other key hitters for WHS all year have included freshmen Macie Mahlberg, Leah Nelson, Emma Hietbrink, Madi Polz and Tayler Nickel. Freshman Margo Menke and sophomore Emry McCuen have made pitching appearances also.

"I think we're still trying to find our groove back," Wysong said. "I've had a couple injured girls that are trying to recover and trying to find their groove back to bat and I think hitting is contagious. Once one girl hits, we all hit and we're still trying to find that. We had it at the beginning of the year, but now these injuries are kind of setting us back but we're in a good spot. We'll be good for (Thursday's) playoffs."

The winner of Thursday evening's game will face the winner of No. 7 Marshall and No. 2 Mankato West. The Trojans swept Marshall during the regular season.

The other side of the Section 2AAA bracket features top-seeded and top-ranked in the state Mankato East with a bye into the semifinals. The Cougars will take on the winner of No. 5 Albert Lea and No. 4 St. Peter Thursday at 7 p.m.

Section semifinal games are scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. and the championship is April 29 with the winner of the championship bracket facing the winner of the elimination bracket.