Kasson-Mantorville Defends State Softball Title

The Kasson-Mantorville KoMets open defense of their Class AA softball championship at 1PM Thursday against unrated Milaca, and the game will be broadcast on Power 96 Radio, 95.9 FM and power96radio.com.

Whether the KoMets win or lose Thursday afternoon, they will play again at 7PM, and that game would air on KDHL Radio 920 AM and kdhlradio.com. You can also listen by downloading the free Radiopup app on your favorite mobile device.

Kasson-Mantorville has just two losses on the season. A 2-0 decision to Mankato East and 1-0 to Zumbrota-Mazeppa in the subsection championship game. Despite their impressive record, the KoMets fell from being ranked No. 1 during the season all the way to fourth heading into the state tournament. Visitation, with three losses, is now ranked No. 1; Zumbrota-Mazeppa, the team the KoMets swept last week to make it to state, was rated No. 2; and Le Sueur-Henderson is third. K-M defeated Hermantown 4-1, Hawley 10-0 in five innings and Le Sueur-Henderson 3-0 to win last year's state crown.

Coaches don't seed in the state softball tournament. The section opponents are determined long before the tourney and K-M got a favorable opening game draw if you take past history into account. The KoMets defeated Milaca in a tournament earlier this season 10-0 in a five-inning affair. The Wolves are 16-5 and have a team batting average of .284. They have had 52 errors in their 21 games. Pitcher Hannah Johnson set a new school record with 245 strikeouts in 152 innings.

Kasson-Mantorville is led by senior pitcher Maddie Damon. Her numbers this season are mind-numbing. She has 339 strikeouts in 151 innings, a 0.14 ERA, 20 shutouts, only allowing two runs in two games and an opponent's batting average of 0.077. Damon is heading to Purdue University on a softball scholarship and has allowed just 38 hits this season while walking only 10. She is the all-time state leader in strikeouts with 1,599. Her career numbers are impressive. In 856 innings, she has an ERA of 0.737 and just 391 hits while amassing that strikeout total and walking just 112 batters. Her opponent's career batting average against her is a tad under 0.125. In addition, with senior catcher Cori Kennedy out with a knee injury suffered at the state basketball tournament, Damon has carried the load offensively. She has 12 homers and 30 RBI, a .448 batting average, which zooms to .650 with runners in scoring position, 39 hits in 26 games and has struck out just twice all season.

The KoMets team batting average is .288 and they have averaged over six runs a game. The team hitting average balloons to .345 with runners in scoring position. Five players have cracked 20 hits or more during the season, and 67 of their 204 hits are for extra bases. With exceptional volleyball and basketball teams as well, Kasson-Mantorville's athleticism is evident by their 34 stolen bases in 39 tries.

First game coverage starts at 12:45PM if everything is on time. There are two earlier games on the field. Whether K-M wins or loses, they play at 7PM and would face either No. 5-rated Hermantown or unranked Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton.