Top-seeded and defending State B champion Castlewood opened first-round play with a methodical win over Elkton-Lake Benton on Thursday morning at Players South Complex.

In other opening round games, Scotland-Menno defeated Gayville-Volin 12-8, Alcester-Hudson outlasted Florence-Henry 7-5, and Chester blanked Deuel 10-0.

Castlewood scored at least two runs in five different innings on the way to a 13-3 victory. The Warriors wiped out an early two-run deficit before gradually taking control.

“We need to trust our bats,” said Castlewood’s Lilly Jacobsen of facing the early deficit. “I just thought, it’s two runs. We’ve got it.”

Jacobsen was one of those bats that came through for the Warriors, producing a pair of hits, and getting on base all four times she was up.

“I go up to the batter’s box and I draw a cross, because that’s the first thing on my mind is Jesus Christ,” Jacobsen said, “and then I go in there and I’m locked on. I visualize myself hitting it and that usually works. I tell myself, first pitch, probably going to be a strike, but we never know.”

Castlewood received contributions from up and down its lineup en route to the six-inning victory.

“We’ve got 11 girls that can hit the ball pretty dang hard,” said Castlewood coach Craig Horn.

While the Warriors had to briefly play from behind, Horn was confident in his players.

“We know that we can battle back,” he said. “We’ve come back in games all year.”

Castlewood had the rare opportunity to face the left-handed pitching of the Elks. Jacobsen, for one, liked the challenge.

“We don’t have a single left-handed pitcher at all,” Jacobsen said. “We get quite a bit of practice in against Claire (Horn) in the batting cages, but I like facing left-handers, it’s a challenge.”

Alcester-Hudson was up to the challenge in its win over Florence-Henry. The Cubs scored three two-out runs in the bottom of the first inning and added another three-run inning later in the contest.

Hailey Hlavacek had a double, triple and homer for Florence-Henry. The senior’s two-run home run in the seventh cut a four-run deficit in half, but it wasn’t enough.

While disappointed with the outcome, Hlavacek said it was memorable to hit a home run in a state tournament.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Hlavacek who has 11 round-trippers on the season. “I wasn’t expecting it.”

However, she was expecting a certain pitch and made the most of her opportunity.

“I kind of thought that she was going to throw a change up, so I knew it was coming,” Hlavacek said, “so just eye on the ball and cranked, I guess.”

Hlavacek, who is also a member of other sports teams for the Falcons, said she is currently playing her favorite.

“Softball has always been my favorite sport,” Hlavacek said. “It’s always a fun, relaxing, cool-down sport. I just love it.”

While happy to be playing in the state tourney, she would like to see her team fare better when it returns to the field this morning.

“It’s very satisfying,” Hlavacek said. “I wish we could have done more tonight, but we’re going to come back (Friday) stronger.”

Chester scored seven runs in the first two frames to set the tone against Deuel.

Alexis Bauman drove in four runs, while Jacy Wolf knocked in a pair. Both Chester players had two hits as well.

“They’re a good team and they’re not afraid to hit,” said Deuel pitcher Katrina Hagberg. The junior struck out 13 batters to run her total to a whopping 249 on the season.

“Just a lot of hard work,” Hagberg said, “and with my team supporting me behind me it helps a lot.”

The Flyers took advantage of their speed on the basepaths to keep Deuel on its heels throughout the contest.

“I wouldn’t say it throws me off, but it definitely adds a little bit of pressure,” Hagberg said, “and then I feel like all of us as a team get a little frazzled when we’re out there, and then we start to struggle a little bit.”

The Cardinals will now regroup and prepare for Florence-Henry in a consolation game at 12:30 p.m.

“(Friday) we’re just going to have to forget about this game,” Hagberg said, “and try to play our game like we usually do and just bounce back.”

Scotland-Menno jumped out to an 8-3 lead over Gayville-Volin, lost it, and then responded with the final four runs to secure its victory, including three two-out runs in the top of the seventh inning.

Olivia Binde had five hits and struck out 10 batters in the victory. Grace Robb and Trinity Bietz each added three hits to the Scotland-Menno total.

Gayville-Volin received three hits from Ayla Dimmer.

Gayville-Volin meets Elkton-Lake Benton at 10 this morning in consolation action.

Semifinals have Castlewood taking on Scotland-Menno at 3 p.m., followed by Alcester-Hudson against Chester at 5:30 p.m.

“Always good to get the first game out of the way and now we can figure it out from there,” said Castlewood coach Horn.

He said the Warriors just need to focus on what they can control.

“We’ve just got to keep doing the things we’ve been doing,” Horn said. “Worry about us and things will take care of themselves. There’s eight good teams here, so we have to take care of us, because we don’t know who we’re going to see.”

Elkton-Lake Benton 2000 010 – 3 4 4

Castlewood 202 243 – 13 11 3

Kylie Ramlo, Matti Ramlo (6) and Maya Jensen; Claire Horn and Lilly Jacobsen. 2B – Elkton-Lake Benton, Madde Jensen, Mya Jensen, Payton Kuehl; Castlewood, Bridgette. Horn, C. Horn, Jacobsen. 3B – Castlewood, Cyndi Kudrna.

Scotland-Menno 230 301 3 – 12 14 4

Gayville-Volin 102 320 0 – 8 10 2

Olivia Binde and Amanda Rames; Ayla Dimmer and Hailey Adams. 2B – Scotland-Menno, Grace Robb; Gayville-Volin, A. Dimmer, Adams, Kendra Beeck-Watertown. 3B – Scotland-Menno, Kaelie Derby, Binde. HR – Scotland-Menno, Trinity Bietz; Gayville-Volin, Paisley Dimmer.

Florence-Henry 100 020 2 – 5 5 2

Alcester-Hudson 300 301 – x 7 6 2

Elizabeth Reiter and Allison Stark; Emma Moller and Paxtyn Moeller. 2B – Florence-Henry, Stark, Haley Hlavacek; Alcester-Hudson, E. Moller, Emma Solberg. 3B – Florence-Henry, Hlavacek. HR – Florence-Henry, Hlavacek.

Deuel 000 00 0 – 0 1 2

Chester 250 3x – 10 6

Lauren Roberts and Mara McDonald; Katrina Hagberg and Hope Bjerke. HR – Deuel, Alexis Bauman.