Photo by Chris Drummond: Wabasso’s Annabelle Struntz connects with a pitch in a 9-8 victory over KMS on Tuesday evening.

MARSHALL — After coming off a nail-biter against the Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Knights softball team, the No. 2 Wabasso Rabbits defeat the No. 1 Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunberg Fighting Saints 9-8 to advance to the 3A championship game on Thursday evening. They will face the Edgerton/SWC for the right to represent Section 3A in the MSHSL softball state tournament

The Wabasso Rabbits again got down in a hole early against the Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunberg Fighting Saints as they put up four runs in the first two innings of the ball game.

As they have done all season, they responded and took the lead for good.

The Rabbits would get one run back with a Callie Burns single, cutting the deficit to three runs 4-1.

After a 1-2-3 inning, Wabasso’s Kelsey Frank got a double and then Avery Carlson got an RBI double to make it 4-2 KMS. Annabelle Struntz got an RBI groundout and then Addisyn Hillesheim tied up the game at 4-4 with an RBI single.

In the bottom of the fifth, Sara Carlson came up to the plate and ripped a shot to center field, driving in the go-ahead run and giving the Rabbits their first lead of the contest 5-4 heading into the 6th inning.

The very next inning, Lyla Kittleson and Callie Burns each got singles, then Sophia Hanna got on due to a KMS fielding error.

Frank came up again and ripped a base hit past second base and drove in two runs, extending Wabasso’s lead to 7-4. The Fighting Saints threw a pitch and had a passed ball to score Hanna, putting the Rabbits up 8-4 in the bottom of the sixth.

After another passed ball, Frank came in and scored, giving Wabasso four runs in the inning with a five-run lead heading into the seventh.

KMS would have to score five runs to force another inning. After walking a batter, Avery Carlson also hit a batter but would get two ground outs to put KMS season on the brink.

However, the Fighting Saints would not roll over easily and put up two runs in the inning, slicing the deficit to 9-6 with the tying run up at the plate. KMS got another base hit and scored two more runs, making it a 9-8 game with the go-ahead run now up at the plate. Eichten changed pitchers and went to Annabelle Struntz to get the final out.

Struntz threw the first pitch and Frank made the catch to advance Wabasso to the championship game.

“Hats off to them, they came ready to hit the ball,” Eichten said. “We got roughed up a little bit in the first inning but that’s playoff softball. Anything can happen at any point in time. I was happy with how we poised ourselves in the middle innings there. Frank has been a huge leader for us and behind the plate she’s been loud for us. Avery Carlson seemed poised on the mound for us. With us being in the championship game, this is fun. This has been our dream and we have been playing tough competition all year preparing us for this. Edgerton/SWC has been a great team for years. We played them close in the regular season. We have to play clean softball and do the little things. We feel like it’s our time.”

Frank finished with three RBIs and two hits. After giving up four runs in the first, Avery Carlson blanked KMS for the next five innings until the top of the seventh.

“Honestly, I had a lot of built-up anger inside of me from Saturday,” Avery Carlson said. “I just wanted to avenge the loss so bad. I didn’t want to come out of the game and I worked my butt off starting to mix up pitches. I thought it was a good call for the coach to pull me and put Struntz in because it is different and they couldn’t figure her out. We are a much better team now because we played [E/SWC] early in the season. We’re going for it and, like coach said, it is our time.”

“I just wanted to be a leader for my team, hype up my teammates and prove to KMS that we are the No. 2 seed,” Frank said. “We wanted to prove to them that we can beat them. I think it will take mental toughness and energy to beat Edgerton/SWC. We almost beat them in the regular season and we lost by one. We can do it.”

The Rabbits will have to win two games in order to advance to the state tournament while the Flying Dutchmen only need to win one game. These two teams met earlier in the season and Edgerton/SWC came from behind and won 3-2.

The first pitch is at 4 p.m. and, if necessary, game two will be at 6 p.m.

Photo by Chris Drummond: Wabasso’s Annabelle Struntz connects with a pitch in a 9-8 victory over KMS on Tuesday evening.