St. Michael-Albertville U16 Softball Squad is Silver

The STMA 16-U Heat softball team took second place in the Tier 1 State Tournament the weekend of July 16-17 at Lake Ann Fields in Chanhassen.

The girls played nine games in two days to take an outstanding second place finish, according to assistant coach MaryEllen Barthel.

The team started the weekend with a win over the MN Vets 2-1. They then played the MN Chaos and lost in extra innings on a controversial call 3-2. In the losers bracket, they played three back-to-back games on Saturday, winning them all.

Sunday, they were right back at it. Starting at 9 a.m. they played back-to-back games, winning their first three before losing the state championship game to Mounds View 5-6.

The girls played extremely well and played more games than any other team in the tournament, Barthel said. The Heat was led by Torey Malerich who pitched all nine games, except for two innings. All of the girls contributed to the win and played well throughout the season. It was a great season, and coming back through the losers bracket to take second place in the state tournament showed that these girls can do anything they put their mind too.