The Minnesota high school sports season heads toward the end with four state championship baseball games Friday, June 18 at Target Field in Minneapolis. Here's a preview of the four finals.
Blogger's Note: HSGN will be present at the Class AAA & AAAA championship games, the first state tournament since the quarterfinals of the 2019 state girls basketball tournament.
10 AM: Class A: Hayfield vs. New York Mills. If Chuck Berry was a baseball fan, he would have loved what the Hayfield Vikings have done in their first two tournament games. The Vikings have scored a sweet little sixteen runs in both games as they beat Adrian/Ellsworth in the quarterfinals 16-1 and shutout the Springfield Trojans 16-0. In the Springfield game, Joey Tempel pitched a two hitter and struck out nine batters. The New York Mills Eagles return to Target Field after they beat neighboring Sebeka 11-4 and in a game that ran two minutes short of four hours, they advanced to the title game with a 9-8 win over the Randolph Rockets in 15 innings. Jace Randolph drove in four RBIs and the game winning single in the bottom of the 15th to give the Eagles the win. Can the Vikings make it three games in a row with 16 runs or will Janet Karvonen's former hometown celebrate with the Class A title trophy?
1 PM: Class AA: Glencoe-Silver Lake vs. Belle Plaine. The Glencoe-Silver Lake Panthers advance to their first championship game since 1997, thanks to the hot bat of Carter Rushmeier. He went 3 for 3 in the quarterfinals against St. Agnes and went 2 for 4 with 3 RBIs in the semifinals against the Plainview-Elgin-Millville Bulldogs. Belle Plaine Tiger fans would have to wait until close to 8:30 to see an outstanding pitching performance from Jackson Kruger as he struck out 17 batters to lead the Tigers to a 2-1 win over the Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Falcons. Josh Kingery, son of former Seattle Mariner Mike Kingery, had 18 strikeouts. Belle Plaine clinched a title berth as Joey Burgemeister's two doubles helped gobble up the Aitkin Gobblers 4-2.
4 PM: Class AAA: Grand Rapids vs. Mahtomedi. There could be joy on the Iron Range as the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks go for their first state title since 1984. Grand Rapids, in their 19th trip to state, beat the Marshall Tigers 6-2. Andrew Sundberg drove in four of the six Thunderhawk runs. Sundberg also drove in two runs to end the St. Thomas Academy Cadets championship reign with a 4-3 win in the semifinals. Mahtomedi has kept their opponents score at zero with a pair of shutouts. In the quarterfinals against Sauk Rapids-Rice, Tony Neubeck went 3 for 3 and Luke Loughlin pitched a four hitter to lead the Zephyrs to a 4-0 win. Neubeck went to the mound in the semifinal game against the Sartell-St. Stephen Sabers and pitched a five hitter and struck out eight en route to a 7-0 win. Can the Thunderhawks solve the Zephyrs pitching or will Mahtomedi go the whole tournament without giving up an earned run?
7 PM: Class AAAA: Farmington vs. Park of Cottage Grove. The Tigers entered the tournament making their first appearance since 1977 and are one win away from taking the championship trophy home down Highway 3. Connor Weed's RBI single was the only run of the game as they shutout the Mounds View Mustangs 1-0. In the semifinals against the Minnetonka Skippers, Farmington came back from a two run deficit in the first inning with three runs in their half of the inning to advance to the title game. It's the first trip to the championship game for the Park of Cottage Grove Wolfpack. Coming out of the rugged Suburban West Conference, they got a four hit shutout from Tucker Novotny as they beat the Rogers Royals 4-0 in the quarterfinals. The Wolfpack bounced back in the semifinals as they came back from a 4-2 deficit to beat the Andover Huskies 5-4. Who will bring home their first state baseball title? It should be an interesting end to a long day of baseball.
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