ROCHESTER — Caledonia High School softball coach Chad Augedahl said a celebration after winning an MSHSL Section 1AA championship on Wednesday included a dash of relief.
The Warriors have had a very good softball program for years, but getting over the hump in the section tournament had never been successfully executed.
Caledonia was a championship qualifier for the third straight season on Wednesday and had to find a way to beat a Winona Cotter coach — Pat Bowlin — with more than 800 career victories one time to win not only for itself but for past teams that had come so close to qualifying for the state tournament.
So when Ashlyn Reinhart singled home Adrienne Lange in the bottom of the ninth inning for a 5-4 victory over the Ramblers, that pride certainly poured out.
“There were a lot of smiles,” Augedahl said. “They got that monkey off their back.”
The Warriors (26-2) have secured their spot in a Class AA state quarterfinal at Caswell Park in North Mankato next week. The other seven quarterfinal qualifiers will be determined today for first-round games to be played on Tuesday.
“I think they were feeling the pressure to do this for all the teams before them,” he said. “A lot of people didn’t understand that we’ve never won (a section tournament) before.
“These girls have put a lot of time into this and played in a lot of games together the last three years and did it.”
The top-seeded Warriors didn’t get down when the third-seeded Ramblers scored four runs with the help of three singles, two walks and a sacrifice bunt in the top of the second inning, and they weren’t deterred when they had the potential winning run tagged out at home in the bottom of the seventh.
Like they did in a 12-5 semifinal win over Cotter on Monday, the Warriors kept their collective focus and erased another big deficit.
“They have a lot of resolve,” Augedahl said. “They don’t waver under the pressure.”
Caledonia also put Bowlin in a tough spot in the ninth when Lange led off with an infield single and stole second base on the first pitch thrown to Avery Augedahl, who was then retired on a fly ball to left.
The winning run stood on second base, and the Warriors had Elsa Blum and Reinhart coming to the plate. Bowlin had to pitch to one of them and opted to intentionally walk Elsa — just as he did Reinhart in the seventh inning — to put two runners on with one out.
Reinhart sent a 1-1 pitch down the left-field line to bring home Lange and create some team history.
For more on the game itself, check the story we posted on Wednesday.
Augedahl said a seeding meeting is scheduled for Friday morning to determine quarterfinal pairings.
