NORTH MANKATO – The defending champs were rolling early in Wednesday’s Class 4A quarterfinals at Caswell Park.

The Irish scored seven runs in the second inning – highlighted by a grand slam from senior outfielder Kayla Bartol, her second homer in as many games – to claim a 7-1 advantage over unseeded Stillwater.

At that point, it was only natural for impartial onlookers to begin focusing more on the other Class 4A quarterfinals taking place around the compound.

Then drama ensued.

Stillwater scored four runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to knot the game. Suddenly, a Rosemount team that appeared to be in cruise control had to upshift gears again.

“(There were lots) of moments where I’m like, ‘Oh crap, we’ve got to get going again,’” senior catcher Grace Nosan said.

And, sure enough, they rescued it in time. Rosemount held Stillwater scoreless in the seventh and eighth frames and Nosan laced a single to left in the bottom of the eighth to plate Anna Price and move the Irish into the semifinals via an 8-7 extra inning victory.

The top-seeded Irish will meet fourth-seeded New Prague in the semis at 2 p.m. Thursday in North Mankato after the Trojans downed St. Michael-Albertville 5-1 in their quarterfinal Wednesday.

“We thought that with a six-run lead, we were fine, but next time we need to start hitting again,” Nosan said. “We’re very relieved right now. Thank the lord. It was fun. That was a fun game, too.”

Stillwater made it so. Rosemount knew how good the Ponies were entering the contest. Nothing about Stillwater (19-6) screamed unseeded squad. It entered state on a 10-game winning streak and sported one of the state’s most dangerous offenses.

The Ponies took a 1-0 lead in the top half of the second inning on a solo shot from shortstop Ava Volkmann.

Stillwater scored seven-plus runs in 16 of its 24 contests leading into Wednesday’s quarterfinal, so it knew it had the firepower to hit itself back into the affair even after going down 7-1.

“We’re very tenacious. We are very strong. We don’t give up, and that’s a very strong quality within our team,” said junior outfielder Maya Schroeder, who belted a two-run blast in the fifth inning to trim the deficit to 7-5. “It’s happened all season – we’ve come back, and we don’t roll over. We really show the other team that we’ll never give up.”

Stillwater knotted the score at 7-7 on a two-run, two-out bloop single from Megan Boser.

“Obviously, we’re happy to walk away from that game with a win, because that’s a great team,” Rosemount coach Tiffany Rose said of the Irish. “They never gave up, and they just showed a lot about themselves and what they can do.”

But the Irish (22-4) did the same. It’s not easy to correct course after falling into a bit of a rut mid-game. With their chances to win a third state title in four years seemingly slipping, Rosemount found a way to get it done.

“I just think that comes down to experience. We have girls here who are two-time state champions. They have been in this situation, they know what to do,” Rose said. “I really do think it just comes down to experience, gutting it out and doing their best.”

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