KoMets in Semis and Hayfield Season Ends at State

Kasson-Mantorville senior Maddie Damon tossed a no-hitter while striking out 14 Milaca batters in a 3-0 quarterfinal round Class AA state softball tournament win today. Damon walked a batter and another hitter was safe on an error. Those were the only two base runners for the Wolves (16-6) in the game.

Damon was in lockdown mode from the start and tallied two strikeouts in every inning. Senior Hannah Johnson was pretty good, too, for Milaca with nine strikeouts, but a four-hit third inning was all the KoMets (24-2) needed. Sophomore Mikayla Grant led the inning off with a single before junior McKenzie Hemann clubbed a no doubt homer on a 1-0 pitch. Juniors Kendra Powers and  Stephanie Meyer had bunt singles and Powers scored on an error. In the fifth inning, Grant just missed a solo homer and stole third after her two-out double off the top of the snow fence.

Damon retired the first 11 batters she faced before a four-pitch walk of No. 3 hitter Rachel Airhart. Then the Pudue University signee for softball retired seven more in a row before an error opened the top of the seventh. She was very efficient, too. Throwing 89 pitches, 62 for strikes.

Hermantown clobbered Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 8-1, so the Hawks will play K-M in the semis at 7PM today (if everything is on time), and our coverage on KDHL 920 AM and kdhlradio.com begins 6:45PM.

Hayfield led 2-0 in their Class A opener against top-ranked New Life Academy and eventually lost 7-2 and then lost to Edgerton/SW Christian 8-0. The Vikings finish the season 21-6.