K-M comes from behind to top Osseo

The Kasson-Mantorville softball team is now 2-0 on the season as it picked up a come-from-behind victory against Osseo on April 19. The victory had a gritty feel for the KoMets as they navigated around an early deficit thanks to some solid pitching and timely hitting.

“This win helps build character,” K-M softball coach Paul Mann said. “It also gives us that never back down from a challenge mentality. We have to be that way and be willing to roll up our sleeves and get the job done.”

After roughly six weeks of indoor practice, the KoMets would be cooped up for at least one more game as it was moved from Kasson to the Maple Grove Sports Dome in order to avoid the sloppy conditions outside. 

Osseo took advantage of their surroundings to score a run in the second and one in the fourth to take an early 2-0 lead off of Cateria Thome. However, the eighth-grader would show composure in her first varsity start shutting the door on the Orioles and striking out seven batters over seven innings to keep the KoMets in it.

“Even though Catiera didn’t have her best stuff, she stayed the course and kept pitching,” Mann said. “She made some awfully big pitches at key times in the game and for an eighth-grader, you don’t see that very often.”

The K-M bats would finally come alive in the bottom of the fifth inning, when Meredith Wright and Morgan Ness led off with walks. After a sacrifice fly by Kayla Schubert, Brianna Pierson would step up and have a fly ball to right field that Danielle Nagengast couldn’t handle. The result was an error for the junior that allowed Wright and Ness to score and tie the game.

Later in the inning with Pierson standing on third, Malia Schubert would deliver another sacrifice fly to give the KoMets the lead at 3-2 despite not recording a hit. Alli Schaeger would break up the no-hit bid by Sy’Rai Trice with a double in the bottom of the sixth and K-M held on for the victory.

“I was very pleased and happy for the girls to come back and win that game,” Mann said. “Six weeks of practice indoors was not for nothing.”

The KoMets will now take their undefeated record into a week that will help them get into a routine after a snow-filled opening to their season. After traveling to Austin on Monday and hosting Stewartville in their home opener on Tuesday, the KoMets will head to Byron on Thursday night before hosting Lake City on Friday night.

The first of many busy weeks to come for K-M will wrap up with a home game against Goodhue on April 30, but Mann and his team are anxious to get back in the swing of things.

“It will be a welcome change of pace,” Mann said. “It will allow us to evaluate players more consistently and focus in on what little things we need to keep working on in order to play our best at the end of May.”