MAYVILLE (NewsDakota)- The build from the ground up is complete, and oh was it worth the wait.

In their fourth season of varsity softball, the Carrington Cardinals punched the program’s first ever ticket to the state tournament in a dominant 15-5 six inning win over the Thompson Tommies on Thursday at May Port-CG High School Softball Diamond in a game that was postponed twice this week due to weather.

It started immediately in the top of the first, with Lauren Hendrickson crushing a two-run double and Ella Volk launching a two-run homer for a 4-0 lead.  It was the second straight game Volk had homered in.  But Thompson responded with three in the bottom half to cut the lead to 4-3.

But in the third, Carrington effectively ended it by scoring nine runs on seven hits and sending fourteen to the plate, highlighted by Calleigh Hewitt’s fourth consecutive postseason game with a home run, this one a two-run shot, to make it 13-3 and while the teams traded runs the rest of the way, when a sixth-inning popup landed in the glove of freshman shortstop Maara Kutz, the celebrations could not be contained.

Following the tournament, Kutz, Hewitt, and Brynn Smith were named to the All-Region 2 Team.

The Cardinals will make their state tournament debut on Thursday, May 29 against an opponent TBD at a time TBD with coverage all weekend on KDAK The Cardinal.

BRADY SMITH POSTGAME WITH JERRY EDWARDS: