FARMINGTON &045; Like so many of its games this year, the Albert Lea High School softball team ended the season with a loss that might just as well have been a win.

The Tigers fell twice in the Section 1AAA tournament at Farmington Wednesday, losing in eight innings to Winona after dropping a 10-run contest to Rochester Mayo in the opener.

Against Mayo, the Tigers enjoyed a short-lived 1-0 lead as Jerri Mondeel singled and scored on a hit by Ashley Helgerson in the top of the first inning. The Spartans answered with five in their initial at-bat, scoring in all but one inning while ending after six by the 10-run rule.

Helgerson was 2-for-3 for the game. Mondeel and Kelly Royce had the Tigers’ other hits.

Nicole Rafdal pitched all six innings. She gave up 10 hits and two walks.

Trailing 2-1 after five innings, the Tigers tied Winona in the sixth, but the Winhawks went on to win it with three runs in the eighth.

Katie Brackey was 2-for-4. Contributing one hit each were Mondeel, Helgerson, Royce and Geri Neumann. Mondeel scored Albert Lea’s run.

Jenna Brackey took the pitching loss, giving up six hits and three walks in eight innings. She struck out five.

The Tigers finished 3-19. They graduate nine seniors in Rafdal, Katie Brackey, Helgerson, Lynsey Jorgenson, Neumann, Jenna Brackey, Emily Reed, Erin Claussen and Heather Stegenga.