By: Joel Herrig
Murray County News Sports
The MCC Rebel Softball team entered the Section 3A playoffs as the 2 seed in the South Subsection. That meant the Rebels were hosting the opening 2 rounds of the playoffs on Thursday. That meant three games in Slayton with the first two games being elimination games. The winners, on the other hand, would advance to the double-elimination round of the playoffs.
The Rebels played the first game of the day when they played the 7th seeded Coyotes of Heron Lake Okabena Fulda. The Rebels didn’t take long in jumping out to a quick lead. The Rebels put up 3 runs in the first inning followed by 5 runs in the second inning and 3 more runs in the third as MCC used a good eye and timely hits to drive in runs. MCC has played strong defense all season in some cases getting too many balls other teams might not. In this game, they were solid as Amanda Muecke was getting ahead of hitters throwing strikes and allowing her defense to record outs. Muecke struck out just four hitters but walked only one and allowed just two hits. It was a solid outing for the senior who only had to pitch four innings due to the 15 run rule. Offensively the Rebels came through with their highest-scoring game of the season putting up 15 runs in the 15-0 win. With the win, the Rebels advanced to take on the 3 seed in the tournament the Wabasso Rabbits who beat Adrian Area 11-1.
Just a week earlier the Rebels and the Rabbits squared off in a non-conference game in Wabasso. Neither team played a great game on that day but the Rebels built a 6-0 lead and held on for the win 6-3. Thursday the Rebels and the Rabbits would go back and forth for a chance to remain in the winners’ bracket. Wabasso took a 1-0 lead that was set up by a costly mistake on the Rebels infield. The Rebels allowed just one run and would quickly answer back with three runs of their own. Amanda Muecke and Courtney Schmitz would have key hits for the Rebels as they took the lead. The Rebels lead didn’t last either as Wabasso scored 5 runs in the top half of the second inning with the Rebels getting back one of their own. MCC trailed 6-4 after two innings. This game wasn’t exactly a pitchers duel as the only inning where one of the two teams didn’t score was the 3rd. Amanda Muecke led the Rebels at the plate with 3 hits while Lilly Schmal and Montana Beckmann had two hits each. As hard as the Rebels fought to stay in the game the Rabbits just had the answers. Wabasso led by Allison Fenger who hit a key home run her third of the day to lead the Rabbits to an 11-8 win.
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