HAYFIELD — When the Hayfield softball team played in the Minnesota Class A state softball tournament last season, sophomores Kelly Johnson and Carrie Rutledge were playing pretty small roles on the team.

Rutledge, who had suffered a broken hand, was a pinch runner and Johnson, who didn’t see much time on varsity last season, volunteered to sit in the dugout as the team’s manager.

Now Rutlege is hitting .402 with two homers, five doubles, six triples and 23 RBIs as Hayfield’s lead-off hitter and shortstop and Johnson is hitting .444 with three homers, six doubles, one triple and 28 RBIs for the Vikings, who open state tournament play against Cherry 1 p.m. Thursday at Caswell Park in Mankato.

Johnson is excited about the opportunity to play in state instead of watching it this year.

“I was just the manger last year and from watching them last year, it’s going to be a whole new experience for me this year. It seemed last year that the nerves got the best of us and this year we should be better,” Johnson said. “We’re not walking in there being scared.”

Rutledge played second base when she was healthy last season, but this year she took over at shortstop for Kyal Heydt, who was injured for the season.

“Those are big shoes to fill. Kyal was a big force on our team,” Rutledge said. “I just kind of took it as I needed to do my job and I didn’t want to let the team down.”

Hayfield (18-8 overall) has relied on two pitchers this season as sophomore Jacie Gustine has pitched in 14 games and senior Jackie Sanvick has thrown in 13 games while battling a back a injury. Hayfield head coach Jana Wagner said she’s leaning towards throwing Gustine in the first game and Sanvick in the second one.

Wagner isn’t sure what to expect from Cherry (20-4 overall), besides the fact that the team likes to bunt.

“We don’t know a ton about Cherry and the nerves should be down. I hope we have a little bit of nerves to stay energized,” Wagner said.

For Hayfield senior catcher Grace Mindrup, this will be her last weekend of high softball and she’s determined to go out strong. Last year’s experience at state, which saw the Vikings go 0-2, has given them a desire to play better this time around.

“We know that we can do better than we did last year because we don’t have as many nerves. There’s not really much of a scare to it anymore,” Mindrup said. “Everybody plays their part and we do it well when we want to. When we play how we can, we can have the mindset to beat any team we want.”

Hayfield has plenty of power in its lineup as six different players have homered and are hitting over .400 this season. The key will be to get the offense going early, and Rutledge, who throws right, but has always batted left since she played Tee Ball, will try to jump start her team from the lead-off spot in the order.

“We know there’s going to be faster pitchers than what we’ve seen in our conference,” Rutledge said. “We just have to have fast hands and be confident at the plate.”

Hayfield’s second game on Thursday will be at 7 p.m and if Hayfield wins its first two games to get to the state championship, it will play 2:30 p.m. Saturday.