By Matt Gade

605 Sports

DEUEL — After finishing seventh for back-to-back seasons, the Deuel Cardinals are now sitting atop the Class B power rankings.

The Cardinals are currently 15-2 with 45.529 in seed points, ahead of Alcester-Hudson (14-2) at 44.625.

For senior pitcher Katrina Hagberg, it was the disappointment in finishing seventh again that motivated the Cardinal’s primary pitcher this past off-season to work harder. 

“Last year, when we got seventh, I was happy that we won that last game, but I was also a little disappointed, because we also got seventh the year before,” Hagberg said. “I just wanted to do better, but it really made me work more on pitching and even my batting. I really focused on that, because I would really like to get higher than that seventh place and just do better overall as a team.”

So far this season, that hard work is paying off for Hagberg and the Cardinals. 

As the team’s primary pitcher, Hagberg has gone 11-2 with a 2.109 ERA, struck out 190 batters while only walking 28 with a batting average against of .154.

Hagberg has been the Cardinals' primary pitcher for the previous two seasons. This year, though, Hagberg is getting relief from eighth-grader Aubrey Lanners.

“I enjoy it,” Hagberg said of having Lanners come in in relief of her. “Especially for the closer games, where once the other teams gets through their batting lineup a few times, they usually start to catch on to my pitches. So then being able to see that we can have Aubrey (Lanners) come in, and then it changes it up just enough that they'll have to try and adjust to her pitches.”

The Deuel softball team. (Courtesy photo)

Deuel head coach Sarah Hagberg, who is also Katrina’s mom, said Katrina didn’t start pitching until the summer before her freshman year. 

But Katrina has a strong fastball that has some natural up and down movement within the pitch that is hard for a lot of batters, which she mixes in with some off-speed pitches.

While Lanners, who’s been working on her pitching for a while now, has a good curveball and screwball that complement Katrina’s pitching.

“In Class B, especially a lot of the batters we see just aren't able to time it up right away, or if they do, it's the second or third time through the lineup,” Sarah said of Katrina. “Whereas Aubrey…she has good speed on her fastball as well, but I think she works on several more of those specialty pitches.”

Besides the addition of Lanners on the mound, the Cardinals as a whole have emphasized getting bats on the ball this year. Batting just over .300 last season, the Cardinals now average .333, led by Katrina (.449) and Lanners (.436). 

Deuel's Katrina Hagberg at the plate during a game this season. (Courtesy photo)

Katrina, who will play at Mount Marty University next year, has four of the team’s five home runs on the year, with Lanners recording the fifth.

Cardinals sophomore Kennedy Harmon is also hitting over .400 with a .415 average, with sophomore Elle Holden at .395.

“Our bats have been working a lot better this year than last year,” Sarah said.

Despite still being in middle school, Lanners isn’t intimidated when she steps up to the plate.

“She does have a monster swing, and I could be throwing to her at batting practice, and she's exceptionally picky, and she doesn't swing at anything unless it’s really good,” Sarah said.

Lanners leads the team in on base percentage with a .607.

“There's definitely a lot of good players, but I just came in knowing that I need to work hard and that I could play at their level,” Lanners said.

Now in the third year of sanctioned high school softball in South Dakota, Sarah said the girls continually playing together year after year has also been a reason for the Cardinals' success this year.

Deuel's Kennedy Harmon (12) and the Cardinals shake hands after a game this season. (Courtesy photo)

Sarah jokes that her coaching “keeps getting easier and easier” because the girls play more and more softball, and not limited to just at the high school level, but also club and travel leagues too.

Sarah noted that she thinks the girls' maturity has also helped the Cardinals, as she said the team doesn’t let little mistakes cascade into bigger ones.

“This year, you know, there's been errors, yes, but we haven't let them compound or build on top of each other, that's been huge for us,” she said.

The camaraderie of the team has also gotten better, both Sarah and Katrina said.

“It feels good to especially know that as a team, the ones that are coming back multiple years, that we're growing as a team,” Katrina said. “Even the team chemistry this year seems a lot better than previous years, and I think that helps out a lot. Just everyone's staying positive.”

And while she’s new on the team this season, being in a small school, Lanners was already quite familiar with most of her teammates.

While she may be quiet when being interviewed, Lanners is very sociable on the team.

“She’s not quiet,” Katrina said of Lanners while laughing.

Right now, the Cardinals are looking forward to hosting a SoDak 16 game and earning another trip to the Class B state tournament that runs June 5-7 in Aberdeen.

Deuel's Eden Schiernbeck looks ready to field a hit during a game this season. (Courtesy photo)

“Not taking anything for granted — you know, on paper, things are looking pretty good for us right now. But, you still gotta play the game, because we've seen some crazy things happen in this game,” Sarah said. “So we're looking forward to the last few games and hopefully making it back to Aberdeen and working on a little higher place than we have the last two years.”

But in the meantime, Katrina and fellow teammate Roxanne Raml have one more milestone in their prep careers before that SoDak 16, graduation.

The two seniors on the Cardinals softball team will receive their diplomas on May 17.

And then after that, it’s back to softball — for a little bit anyways.

“I would really like to get higher than that seventh place and do better overall as a team,” Katrina said.