Reusse: As Caswell Park does itself proud in North Mankato, a hometown team runs hard into a challenge

MANKATO – The population of Mankato and its companion, North Mankato, has gone past 60,000, and there was more evidence Wednesday that those burgs got it going when it comes to the sporting life down here.

Rain wiped out the start of the softball state tournament at North Mankato’s Caswell Park on Tuesday, which most anywhere else would have eliminated the hopes of playing down to eight finalists before midnight Wednesday.

Not at Caswell. There are six fields sprouting from a central location, and games — championship round, consolation round — were being played continuously from 8:30 in the morning.

Throw in a hockey arena downtown for the D-I Mavericks, and the first-class ballpark housing the Moon Dogs of the Northwoods League, and tremendous Division II athletic success and a still-lively campus of 14,000 at Minnesota State, and they have a sports bonanza down here.

There are even rumors of fundraising momentum that could lead to eliminating Blakeslee, MSU’s dump of a football stadium.

Mankato’s so hot it even obtained a place in popular fiction when John Sandford introduced Virgil Flowers in 2007 as an alternative to Lucas Davenport, the lead character in his best-selling “Prey” novels.

“I wanted to create somebody who would have wide jurisdiction … so Virgil became the sole southern Minnesota agent for the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension," John Camp (aka, Sandford) said in an email exchange Tuesday. “I could have put him in Rochester, but I’d been to Mankato more often … and then walked around for a few days, exploring, before choosing it."

This is a Minnesota sports haven that includes the high school softball teams that had won the past three Class 3A titles — Mankato West in 2022 and Mankato East in 2023 and 2024.

Kylinn Stangl is the senior pitching ace for the East Cougars. She was a strong contender to be the Star Tribune’s Minnesota player of the year, although that honor went to Carter Raymond from Randolph, a defending state champion in Class 2A.

Stangl and Raymond are both committed to the Gophers — Kylinn way back in the summer of 2023 and Raymond last fall. Coach Piper Ritter and the Gophers have fallen on hard times: 5-17 in the Big Ten and 17th place with the West Coast expansion. So they could use a boost.

“I toured Iowa State and went to San Diego State, but I’ve always been a fan of the maroon and gold,” Stangl said. “Carter and I are going to room with two other freshmen that are coming in. It will be exciting to be a Gopher.”

First, there has been the issue of a three-peat, a quest laid on scores of T-shirts worn by Cougars fans Wednesday morning — way back on Field 6. East brought with it Stangl and the No. 1 seed, but the opponent, Simley, has been a state tournament regular lately.

Emily Hacker, a junior shortstop, got the East attack started as it took an early 2-0 lead. She was another member of the Star Tribune’s 25-player all-state team named this week.

The Cougars didn’t do much adding on after that, and Simley actually had two runners on with two outs in the seventh before a groundout.

Stangl had eight strikeouts; she’s a pitcher who induces soft contact and relies on her fielders. Which in this case works, since Hacker and the rest of the lineup made the plays when required.

The catcher is a freshman, and also happens to be Kylinn’s younger sister, Harper.

“There was a time when she didn’t want to catch me,” Kylinn said. “I’d tell her, ‘Buckle up.’ Harper’s been doing great back there.”

East’s drive toward the state tournament wasn’t without a few blips. Included was a midseason loss to West … unexpected with the Cougars being the city power at the moment.

“It’s an outstanding rivalry with West,” Stangl said. “We play together as kids in Peppers — the great youth softball program here. We’ve played on summer teams together. But when we play in the high school season, it’s, ‘We can’t lose to that team.’ “

East also lost the opener to New Ulm in the section tournament. Double-elimination, so you slip again and the order for the “Three Peat” T-shirts has to be cancelled.

Eventually, the Cougars needed two victories over New Ulm, and they pounded ’em both times. Stangl does some of that, too; Kylinn was among the state leaders with 10 home runs.

As it turned out, the black T-shirt crowd could have used one of those in the semifinals Wednesday night. Rocori, after needing 14 innings to beat Becker 2-1 earlier and getting all 14 of those innings out of pitcher Jessica Boos, shocked the world, or at least Mankato, by knocking off East 2-0. Boos pitched all seven of those innings.

Mankato’s three-year reign as the Class 3A champion, one for West and two for East, was over, ended at Caswell Park on Minnesota softball’s longest day.