The Faribault Falcon softball team travels to Mankato West today in hopes of a win that would give them the Big Nine Conference championship all by themselves.  Tuesday's win over Owatonna assured them of a minimum tie for the title.  A win today would mean Faribault would go the Big Nine Season undefeated.  An impressive accomplishment in a league that has no less than 5 of it's members in the state rankings in Class 3A.  Mankato West knows all about running the table in the Big Nine.  From 2007-2009 they had 51 straight conference wins.

The latest rankings have Faribault #1 and Mankato West #3.  Other Big NIne Conference ranked teams are defending State Champion Winona #5, Mankato East #7 and Northfield is in the others receiving votes after falling out of the top 10 following their loss to the Falcons.  Mankato West has won the Big Nine Conference five years in a row and since 2000 has 12 Conference titles.  The Scarlets placed 4th at state last year after winning the State Championship in 2016 in a classic all Big-Nine championship game.  Last year Winona won the State Championship.

Mankato West only has one loss in the conference.  That came April 30 in Winona by a score of 5-0.

Mankato East and West have dominated the sport of fastpitch softball with titles dating back to the 2005 season.  That's the last time a school other than Mankato East or Mankato West won the conference in softball.  Rochester Mayo was the Big Nine Champion that year.  Eleven seasons straight before that East and West either won or shared the title.  To put it another way only two schools other than Mankato West or Mankato East have won the Big Nine since 1994.

Austin tied with Mankato East in 2002 and 2003 and as noted earlier Rochester Mayo was the title holder in 2005.  So even clinching a share of the Big Nine is an excellent accomplishment for the 2018 Faribault Falcons.

But as I've told many of the ladies the last couple weeks, you don't want share the Big Nine title.

KDHL Radio 920 AM and www.kdhlradio.com will be broadcasting today's showdown from Mankato West High School.  Coverage begins 4:15 p.m. with first pitch scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

The best way to listen is to download the FREE KDHL app on your favorite mobile device.  It's static free and you can read website content to boot.  Just tap the app and have access to weather information, radar, wind speed when spraying crops.  Listen to farm market reports and high school and college games wherever you go on the planet.

high school softball
Faribault Junior McKayla Armbruster throwing last pitch in last year's perfect game against Northfield. Photo by Gordy Kosfeld
loading...

More From KDHL Radio