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By Brian Kalish

June 15, 2012

Danielle Hoover, middle, comes up big for Pacelli in the seventh inning after an adventurous afternoon in the field.

Madison– A comedy of errors is great for a Shakespeare production, but not exactly what you want to see when you’re playing in the WIAA softball State Semifinals.

For the Pacelli Cardinals, tragedy turned into triumph as they overcame 6 errors and several deficits to Grantsburg before coming out 8-7 winners on an Alicia Wimme sacrifice fly in the seventh inning to break a 7-7 tie and vault the Cardinals to the state finals.

This game was a see-saw affair for the entire afternoon.  Pacelli scored in the first inning when Sami Shafranski darted for home on a Grantsburg throwing error, but the lead was short lived.  Grantsburg plated three runners in the the bottom of the frame and turned the tables on Pacelli, scoring a run of their own on a Pacelli throwing error.

Pacelli came back in the second inning and tied the game as Shafranski and Callyn Haupert knocked in runs for the Cardinals.

Unfortunately, in what would become a theme for Pacelli, two more errors in the bottom of the second led to two Grantsburg runs and the Cardinals found themselves down 4-3.

Said Pacelli head coach Ann Molski,  ”I looked at the scoreboard in the seventh and saw six errors and thought, ‘What in the world?  Who is this team?’  But we talked to the girls.  They were a little tight.  Practice this week was a little tight.”

Pacelli pitcher Cassie Nelson, who committed one of Pacelli’s errors, said, “I think we got a little bit ahead of ourselves and just didn’t focus.  We just got ahead of ourselves trying to get the outs.  We came back with our hitting and did really well offensively.”

Both Nelson and her counterpart, Grantsburg’s Macy Hanson both settled down after the third inning before the Cardinals cashed in four runs in the fourth inning, courtesy of a Haupert RBI single and a 3 RBI double from Lauren Jurgella.

While the three-run lead gave the Cardinals a boost of confidence, Grantsburg would not go quietly.  They turned around and scored three runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth to tie the score at 7-7.

“I don’t know what it is,” Molski said.  ”Lately it’s been we get a lead, then (our opponents) get a lead.”

The score would remain tied until the top of the seventh when Danielle Hoover– who committed four errors in the game– hit a soaring double that bounced off the outfield wall, narrowly missing a home run.  Hoover then scored on Wimme’s sacrifice fly.

Nelson worked around a walk in the bottom of the seventh to record the win for Pacelli.

“We’re feeling great.  We knew this was going to be  a tough game because they’re a lot like us,” Nelson said.  ”They’re a really great team.  We’re just lucky to have made it back to state, back to the championship.  We’re just really happy.”

Pacelli will face Poynette tomorrow in the Division 3 championship game.

Hitting:

LOB– Pacelli 5; Grantsburg 9
2B–Pacelli: Hoover
Grantsburg: Hanson, Witzany (2)
3B–Grantsburg: S. Schwieger
SF– Pacelli: Wimme

Pitching:

WP– Nelson
LP–Hanson

SO– Nelson 3, Hanson 4
ER– Nelson 2, Hanson 5