The Rebels' bats quieted after their two-run third inning, but that was no issue with junior pitcher Mariah Anderson on the mound. Her whizzing fastball helped her record 19 strikeouts, putting her tournament total at 52 across three shutout games, three short of the MSHSL’s recorded three-game state tournament record.

Her pitching prowess helps United South Central lift its first state trophy in the team's first tournament appearance, finishing the season 26-1 with a 2-0 victory over Badger/Greenbush-Middle River.

BGMR senior Jaci Hanson makes a quick snag at third base to send USC back into the dugout with two runners left on base. We head into the final two innings of a  2-0 game. USC has two hits, BGMR one.

The Gators couldn’t turn their first base hit of the day — a leadoff single from senior Quinn Vacura in the top of the fifth — into anything as USC junior pitcher Mariah Anderson bumped her strikeout tally up to 14 in five innings.

The Rebels are rolling! We’ve got our first breakthrough, United South Central up 2-0 in the bottom of the third.

Junior Carissa Hanson walked to get the Rebels started, then advanced to second on Hannah Neibuhr’s single to left. Junior Mariah Anderson’s hit to the left side of the infield, trickling through on a fielding error, sent sophomore Ivy O’Rourke to the plate with bases loaded. A dribbler near the plate allowed Hanson to slide in for USC’s first run, followed by Neibuhr shortly after.

USC has our first raucous student section at today’s tournament, giving a classic “Coach is rattled” chant as BGMR took a timeout. The inning ended with three Rebels on base.

Top of the third, and we’re still scoreless. Mariah Anderson has five strikeouts in six batters faced for the United South Central, while the Gators are countering with some great fielding of their own — no bobbles or errors, just solid tracking, plus a quick throw from catcher Sarah Pulk to stop USC’s Alivia Bruegger from stealing second. Pulk is also a state champion in girls wrestling for BGMR.

Three batters faced, three strikeouts for USC junior Mariah Anderson. Coming off two shutouts with a combined 33 strikeouts, she picks right up where she left off for the Rebels in this first inning.

The Badger/Greenbush-Middle River fans are certainly the day’s winners for “longest drive.” The northernmost of the three communities that feed into the team, Badger, is a six-hour drive north of Jane Sage Cowles Stadium. The other team in the 1A final, United South Central, is from Wells, due south of the metro and 20 minutes north of the Iowa border. So the participants reside nearly eight hours apart.

Here’s something peculiar: All four of the softball state tournaments will produce a first-time champion today. In our last matchup of the day — Class 1A — we’re guaranteed a fresh face holding the trophy, no matter the outcome.

No. 6 Badger/Greenbush-Middle River is a four-time runner-up, most recently in 2023, but never the champion. United South Central, the lone No. 1 seed to make the title games across all four classes, is a rare top-seeded state tournament debutante.

The BGMR Gators (19-6) took their semifinal to the ninth inning against Bethlehem Academy, with senior Quinn Vacura sending junior Teagan Landsrud home with a single and a 1-0 win.

For USC (25-1), junior pitcher Mariah Anderson has put in an impressive tournament stint. In the Rebels’ 6-0 semifinal win over Braham, she struck out a tournament-record 20.

It's over. St. Cloud Cathedral wins 7-2. Hawley didn't go down meekly. The Nuggets got a two-run inside-the-park home run from Hannah Stotts and put two more on base, but a strikeout and a groundout ended the threat and the game. Cathedral ended up with six hits and one error. Hawley had five hits and an error. And when do you see three inside-the-park home runs in one game?

Cathedral extends the lead to 7-0 when a sinking liner by Tayla Vought goes under the left fielder's glove and all the way to the fence. Sadie Meyer, on after a single scored, as then Vought beat the throw home. Two inside-the-park round-trippers in one game. Don't see that often.