Bobcats advance to Class AA title game, Cardinals fall in semifinals at state softball tournament

The Bobcats will battle Sioux Falls Lincoln for the inaugural state title on Saturday afternoon.

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ABERDEEN – The Brookings Bobcats will play for the Class AA title while the Arlington Cardinals fell in the Class B semifinals at the SDHSAA softball tournament on Friday evening.

Arlington will play Bon Homme for third place at the Players Softball Complex at 3 p.m. on Saturday while Brookings will face top-seeded Sioux Falls Lincoln for the Class AA state championship at the Koehler Field of Dreams on the Northern State University campus at 5:30 p.m.

BROOKINGS

After defeating O’Gorman in the quarterfinals on Friday morning, Brookings defeated Brandon Valley to earn a spot in Saturday’s championship game.

The Bobcats went down early in the semifinal matchup as Coarl Gonseth delivered an RBI single and Keaton Jensen scored on an error by Tessa Twedt in the top of the first inning to give the Lynx a 2-0 lead. Brookings answered with three runs in the bottom half of the first, using an RBI double by Morgan Linstad and Gracie Adamson’s two-run homer – her third of the tournament – to take a 3-2 lead.

Brookings added to the lead in the bottom of the third inning when Linstad drove in a run on a sacrifice fly and Adamson smacked an RBI double to make it a 5-2 game.

While Adamson had three RBI at the plate, she made sure the lead held up in the circle. Although she allowed an RBI single to Peyton Amdahl in the top of the seventh inning, Adamson was solid, allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks with seven strikeouts to secure the Bobcats’ spot in the state championship game.

Kymber Buys went 2-for-3 with two doubles and a run scored, Morgan Norgaard went 1-for-2 with a double, a walk and two runs scored, Morgan Pantzke went 1-for-3 with a double and Kylie Moe went 1-for-3 with a single in the victory.

With a record of 16-3, the third-seeded Bobcats will face the top-seeded Patriots in the championship game. The Bobcats fell to Sioux Falls Lincoln 6-5 on April 24 but that game saw Brookings hold a 5-3 lead before the Patriots rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to earn the win.

ARLINGTON

The Cardinals were three outs away from going to the Class B championship game but a four-run rally in the top of the seventh helped Castelwood earn a 6-5 victory over the Cardinals in the Class B semifinal.

Castlewood got on the board first with Madeline Horn’s RBI double in the top of the first inning before Harley Johnson drove in two runs on a triple to give the Cardinals a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third inning. Johnson later scored on Addy Steffensen’s RBI single to give Arlington a 3-1 lead but Horn’s second RBI of the game came on a single in the top of the fifth inning to make it a 3-2 game.

With the game coming down to the wire, Johnson drove in her third run of the game on an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning and Brenley Goebel appeared to break the game open with her RBI single to give Arlington a 5-2 lead heading into the top of the seventh inning.

Castlewood responded with two walks and a single to load the bases and Mackenzie Everson used a two-RBI single to bring the Warriors within a run. With no outs on the board, Horn used a two-run double to give Castlewood the lead and with the tying run on first base, the Cardinals didn’t have an answer, allowing the Warriors to advance to the Class B title game.

Goebel went 3-for-4 at the plate with an RBI while Issie Steffensen went 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Johnson went 2-for-4 with a triple and three RBI while Ellisyn Vincent, Madalyn Madsen and Addy Steffensen each had a single in the loss.

Taya Clausen took the loss in the circle but recorded 13 strikeouts while allowing six runs on eight hits and three walks.