Retooled St. Charles pulls of pair of upsets in Section 1-2A softball tournament, sets up date with Randolph (2024)

ROCHESTER — The St. Charles High School softball team knew this year was going to be a little different than year's past.

With the graduation of 2023 Post Bulletin Softball Player of the Year Grace Buringa as well as standout ace pitcher Brenna Koeppel from a team that finished as Class 2A state runner-ups, the Saints knew they had big shoes to fill. Then standout centerfielder Makadyn Gust suffered a torn ACL in the Class 1A girls soccer state semifinals, forcing her to miss her final prep softball season.

It left many around the area thinking it was a bit too much to overcome. Still, the Saints believed they had what it took to make another run in the Section 1, Class 2A playoffs.

"The motto from the beginning was we aren't rebuilding, we are retooling," junior pitcher Lauren Waller said.

That "retooling" was on full display Thursday at the Rochester Youth Fastpitch Softball Complex. The No. 7-seeded Saints pulled off not one, but two upsets, knocking off No. 2 Caledonia 8-2, before defeating No. 6 Chatfield 9-6 in a pair of Section 1-2A playoff games.

The Saints are now two wins away from the program's third state tournament appearance in four years. This one would appear to be the most unlikely.

"I definitely at the beginning of the season did not think we were going this far," Waller admitted with a laugh.

The Saints started the season losing six of their first nine games as they did their best to figure out life without those three aforementioned standouts. However, the last few weeks they had found their groove, entering the section tournament winners of eight of their last 11.

"It's all about building, right?" coach Adam Gust said. "We've played a lot of good ball as of late. And we've said it all year long, it's not how you play during the season, it's how you're playing when you finish and we're playing good ball right now. Caledonia is a heck of a team, Chatfield is a heck of a team. And we came in and we did our thing."

The Saints' offense was machine-like throughout the day, getting contributions from up-and-down the lineup across both games. But it was Waller's effort in the circle and excellent defense behind her that was the difference throughout.

Waller went 11 2/3 innings across the two games, allowing six runs — two of those came after she was lifted in the fifth against Chatfield in game two.

But overall, she was impressive, especially against Caledonia, which entered averaging a Section 1-2A-best 10.5 runs per game. She allowed two unearned runs in seven innings against the Warriors. She did it by being consistently around the strikezone, showing off tremendous movement on all three of her pitches. Her effort had a Greg Maddux-like feel as she consistently forced weak contact thanks to that movement. Her change-up in particular was strong and often left hitters shaking their head as well as their hands as they caught the pitch towards the end of the bat or down on the label.

Overall, she was stellar, picking up the win in both games.

"When we started the season, we were thinking, hey, it's going to be a rotation," coach Gust said. "We're going to have three or four different girls throwing every single game. And (Waller) has just kind of taken that ace role by the horns and ran with it. And holy buckets, she has done an outstanding job for us. Definitely if not the MVP for us today, she's right there."

Waller was quick to credit her defense.

Whether it was leaping grabs from Mya Omdahl at short or picks at first from Willow Lange, or flyballs tracked down by Braelyn Gust and Emma Chuchna in the outfield, the Saints were as good as it gets in the field.

"I'm not a strikeout pitcher but I have my defense," Waller said.

The St. Charles offense wasn't too shabby, either.

After scoring eight runs against Caledonia, the Saints bats kept the momentum going with a six-run second inning. St. Charles capitalized off back-to-back errors to start the inning, with four of the next six hitters recording a run-scoring base hit. In all, the Saints sent 11 to the plate, scoring six runs on five hits in the frame.

St. Charles added two more in the fifth to take control with an 8-1 lead.

"Everyone is hitting the ball and everyone can get a hit any single at-bat," Waller said.

It was the second inning that doomed Chatfield.

The Gophers played splendid against Dover-Eyota, defeating the No. 3 seed 7-4 with Alexis Hinckley and Brittin Ruskell each driving in three runs. The offense was solid again against the Saints as the Gophers eventually wore down Waller, scoring three runs in the fifth. They would add two more on a booming two-run home run from Makenna Dornack to make it a three-run game.

But the six-run second inning was too much to overcome.

They will now try to keep their season alive against No. 5 Winona Cotter in an elimination game at 11 a.m. Saturday in Winona.

"Take away one inning and there's three runs easily," Chatfield coach Brent Berge said. "But hand it to St. Charles. They are a phenomenally coached team. They know how to play softball. They do. Adam and the staff, they get the most out of their team. Every time we play them. I mean, these girls are coming right out of eighth grade and you know what, Adam's got them going. Kudos to St. Charles. They know what they're doing. Doesn't matter who they play."

St. Charles will now face top-seeded and top-ranked Randolph in a semifinal at 5 p.m. on Tuesday at Todd Park in Austin. Those two squared off earlier in the season with Randolph walking away a 4-0 winner.

Speaking of Randolph, the Rockets looked especially strong in a pair of 10-0 wins over No. 8 Cannon Falls and No. 4 Zumbrota-Mazeppa.

Carter Raymond continues to shine in the circle.

The junior made history in Game 1, setting the program mark for career strikeouts with 753.

"At first, I forgot that I was as close as I was," the right-hander said. "Then once I hit it, like having everyone here — we have one of the best fan bases. To have everyone here supporting me just felt really good."

The Rockets enter Tuesday's showdown with St. Charles a perfect 22-0 and have outscored their opponents by an eye-popping 181-8. Not too bad for a squad making the leap up to Class 2A from Class 1A.

"I feel like everyone wasn't really expecting us to be 22-0 and all, but we're here," Raymond said. "We're obviously proving ourselves. I feel like that's one of the big things, the actual part that we're doing our stuff. We know what we're doing and showing everyone that we belong here."

St. Charles9,Chatfield6
St. Charles#060#021#0#—#9#9#1
Chatfield#100#030#2#—#6#10#4
St. Charles: Braelyn Gust 1-for-4, 1 2B, 1 R; Bailee Glover 2-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 R; Mya Omdahl 2-for-4, 1 3B, 1 RBI, 1 R; Addison Overkamp 1-for-4 1 RBI; Willow Lange 1-for-3, 1 RBI, 1 R. Pitchers: Lauren Waller (WP) 4 2/3 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 2 K; Willow Lange 2 1/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 K.
Chatfield: Braelee Horsman 1-for-3 1 R; Alexis Hinckley 1-for-3 1 2B; Brittin Ruskell 1-for-4 1 RBI; Kendall Knutson 1-for-3 1 R; Olivia Karver 2-for-3; Brynn Horsman 1-for-3 1 R; Makenna Dornack 3-for-4, 1 2B, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 3 R. Pitchers: Katryn Johnson 2 2/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K; Rylee Urban (LP) 4 1/3 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K.

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin

Maya Giron / Post Bulletin