NORTH MANKATO — After watching Makayla Steffes toss a four-hit shutout in the Class AAA quarterfinal, Ava Hamsund had just three words: Hold my drink.
The Winona Senior High junior southpaw dazzled in the circle, allowing just two hits in seven shutout innings as she outdueled Chisago Lakes standout Ashley Mandell to propel the top-seeded Winhawks to their second consecutive Class AAA championship with a 4-0 win over the Wildcats in the semifinals on Thursday.
Now, the Winhawks will play rival Mankato West in the championship at 1:30 p.m. Friday where they will go for the program's second state title. The Winhawks won their only title in 2017 and have finished runner-up twice since 2016.
"We told the girls at the beginning of the year, every rung of the ladder we take, we are just stepping up, stepping up, stepping up," Winona coach Mitch Grossell said. "We've taken 24 rungs, now we have one more to go."
Entering the semifinal, Grossell had a decision to make.
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He could go back to Steffes, who had 11 punch outs in seven innings in a 9-0 over Rocori in the quarterfinal just hours before. But the Winhawks have rode their dynamic duo all season long and Grossell wasn't about to change that.
It turned out to be right call.
As Grossell has come to learn, he let Hamsund know about 10 minutes before the start.
"She's either unflappable or she's a little nervous sometimes," Grossell said. "As long as she doesn't know what she's doing 10 minutes before the game, she's fine. That's the key. Honest to God, that's the truth."
She was unflappable this time around.
Hamsund was simply spectacular, spotting her fastball where she wanted to before backing it up with a devastating circle changeup. The Wildcats had no idea what was coming as was evident by the amount of check swings and weak contact. In the end, Hamsund was nearly unhittable, not allowing a hit until two outs in the fifth.
She faced just three batters over the minimum and the only time Chisago reached second was in the sixth inning.
"I knew I wanted to win this game for my team," an emotional Hamsund said. "We worked so hard to be here. I'm very proud of us. I wanted to keep it going."
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Hamsund won the duel against Mandell, who Grossell called one of the best in the state.
But thanks to a tough and rugged Big Nine Conference and a hard non-conference slate, it was nothing Winona hadn't seen before.
The Winhawks (23-1) were able to get to the hard throwing right-hander with two runs in the first after Hamsund helped her own cause with a two-out RBI double to right-center. Hamsund later came around to score after an error by the second baseman.
"She's very fast," Hamsund said of Mandell. "So you got to be able to keep it short and sweet."
Hamsund tallied her second run-scoring double in the fifth, driving in Grace Fricke, who also doubled, to make it 4-0. It was more than enough runs for Hamsund.
Now, the Winhawks are one away from their second state title. But it will have to come against a Scarlets team that still has a bad taste in their mouth from when the Winhawks upset them on a walk off in extras in last year's state semifinal.
"I'm sure they want to play us really bad," Grossell said. "But we want to play them too. It's one and two in the state going into it. Our goal was to get to them and theirs was to get to us."
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