WILLMAR — Madison Norsten got to play the hero twice in one day for the Willmar softball team. Norsten scored the walk-off run in a 3-2 victory over Little Falls in Game 1 of the Section 8AAA elimination bracket Tuesday at the Willmar Civic Center softball field. In Game 2 against Hutchinson, the senior hit an RBI triple that began a three-run third inning for the Cardinals. That led to a 3-0 victory over the Tigers. “I know there were times where we definitely felt the nerves, like against Little Falls when it kept going back and forth,” Norsten said. “We just kept reminding ourselves that we just got to push through and keep trying. “It came out in the end and we just got to bring this momentum to Thursday.” The two victories have the Cardinals one win away from qualifying for their first section championship game since 2018. Willmar plays Alexandria in an elimination game at 4 p.m. Thursday at St. Cloud Tech High School. The winner plays Rocori for the 8AAA championship at 6 p.m. Thursday. Game 2, if necessary, is at 4 p.m. Friday back at St. Cloud Tech. Rocori beat Alexandria 13-0 on Tuesday. “I expect us to be pretty equally matched,” Willmar head coach Breanna Tupa said of the pending matchup against Alexandria. Willmar is 1-2 against Alex, with a 7-5 win on April 15, a 2-0 loss on May 9 and a 5-4 loss in the second round of the playoffs. Tupa continued, “It’s going to be who takes care of the little things. That team will come out on top.” The Cardinals jumped on Little Falls early with a pair of runs in the first inning when Isley Ripperger and Brynnlee Carroll both scored on a Hannah Magnuson single. The Flyers tied the game in the second with a RBI double from Brynn Thoma and an RBI single from Ellie Abbott. Norsten, the number nine hitter in the lineup, looked to set Willmar up for success in the third with a leadoff double. She went for third but was thrown out, neutralizing the threat. That made her game-winning run all the sweeter. With one out in the bottom of the seventh and Norsten at third following a wild pitch, Little Falls intentionally walked Ripperger and Carroll to load the bases. A wild pitch from the Flyers’ Sequoia Kicker reached the backstop, allowing Norsten to race home easily. Her grin widened with each step toward the plate. “It felt good knowing we got the win under our belt,” Norsten said. “Honestly, it was just a team effort loading up the bases and being smart.” Norsten’s first at-bat against Hutchinson got her back to third base and scored Grace Etterman for a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Norsten came home on a Ripperger sacrifice fly. Norah Nesges scored the final run of the frame on a Carroll single. “Coach Tupa told me to trade places with Grace (Etterman) and that’s what we ended up doing,” Norsten said. “It just brought the momentum and we stuck through it until the end.” In both games, the Cardinals were carried in the circle by youngsters Grace Kalkbrenner and Claire Guennigsmann. The seventh-grader Guennigsmann got the victory against Little Falls, striking out seven in five innings of relief. The freshman Kalkbrenner beat the Tigers with six strikeouts over five innings. “We went from both of them pitching solo games and I told them from the get-go that this is going to be more of a partnership than anything,” Tupa said of Kalkbrenner and Guennigsmann. “We need to feed off of each other and work back and forth. They’ve done a tremendous job of getting to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and helping each other out in that way.”
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