| State Lacrosse Tournament |
The Blake School girls, Eastview boys to defend titles;
Tournament field doubled; Seven teams making first appearances
The Minnesota State High School League will conduct its seventh lacrosse tournament for girls and boys June 11, 13 and 15. For the first time, eight teams will compete for both boys and girls at both Chanhassen and Chaska high schools. There were 67 girls' teams and 63 boys' teams competing this year.
The Blake School girls will defend their title with the No. 1 seed and seek their fifth title. The Eastview boys will defend their title, but earned the No. 2 seed behind top-seeded Eden Prairie. Seven of the 16 tournament teams are making first tournament appearances, as might be expected with the expansion from four-team to eight-team tournaments.
Boys' Quarterfinals
The four quarterfinals will be played at Chaska High School on Tues., June 11. All subsequent rounds move to Chanhassen High School, with championship and consolation semifinals on Thur., June 13, and consolation title, third-place and championship games on Sat., June 15. The Eastview Lightning earned the No. 2 seed and will defend their 2012 title.
Totino-Grace, Fridley (9-5) vs. No. 3 Seed – Champlin Park, Brooklyn Park (13-2) at 1 p.m.
Orono (12-3) vs. No. 2 Seed. – Eastview, Apple Valley (12-3) at 3 p.m.
No. 5 Seed – The Blake School, Minneapolis (10-5) vs. No. 4 Seed – White Bear Lake Area (14-1) at 5 p.m.
Rochester Mayo (11-4) vs. No. 1 Seed – Eden Prairie (15-0) at 7 p.m.
Girls' Quarterfinals
Only either The Blake School or Eden Prairie has ever won the girls' championship. The Blake School Bears, the defending champions but No. 2 seed, have won four and the Eden Prairie Eagles, the No. 1 seed, have won two. All quarterfinals will be played on Tues., June 11 at Chanhassen high School, as will be the third-place and championship games. All other games will be played at Chaska High School. The championship and consolation semifinals will be played on Thur., June 13. The consolation title game and third-place and championship games will be played on Sat., June 15.
Elk River/Rogers/Zimmerman (13-3) vs. No. 3 Seed – Stillwater Area (14-2) at 1 p.m.
Robbinsdale Armstrong (14-1) vs. No. 2 Seed – The Blake School, Minneapolis (13-3) at 3 p.m.
Champlin Park, Brooklyn Park (9-5) vs. No. 1 Seed – Eden Prairie (15-1) at 5 p.m.
No. 5 Seed – Burnsville (14-1) vs. No. 4 Seed – Lakeville North (12-4) at 7 p.m.
Background Information
While the premise is the same for both boys' and girls' games, there are also several key differences. The girls play 25-minute halves of primarily running time, and the game is played with 12 players: a goalkeeper, five offensive players, and six defenders. The girls' game is also considered a non-contact game.
The boys have 10 players on the field at a time: a goalie, three defensemen, three midfielders, and three attackers. They play four 12-minute stop-time quarters.
Players of both genders may pass, catch or run with the ball in their crosse.
Minnesota was the 22nd state to add a state lacrosse tournament in 2007.
Ticketing and Live Webcast
Ticketholders may attend games on the same day at both venues with their ticket stub and a hand stamp. GrandStadium.tv will webcast the two championship games. Find the link to the games at Prep45.com.
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| State Baseball Tournament |
St. Agnes only returning champion;
Five teams making debut appearances
In the 14th year of a three-class format, St. Agnes of St. Paul in Class A is the only returning champion. A new champion will emerge in Class AA because Holy Family Catholic of Victoria failed to qualify this year. A new champion will also emerge in Class AAA because Eastview of Apple Valley failed to qualify this year.
Five teams qualified for the first time this year: Osakis and Floodwood in Class A; Watertown-Mayer and Minnehaha Academy of Minneapolis in Class AA; and Lakeville North in Class AAA.
This is the first year that the tournament has been seeded. The eight coaches of the section champions logged onto a special page of the League Web site and each coach ranked the other teams one through seven. The highest and lowest rankings for each team were discarded, leaving five rankings for each team. From those rankings, the teams were seeded one through five. In conference calls with all eight head coaches, League Associate Director Kevin Merkle announced the top five seeds. From there, a blind draw was conducted to determine the opponents for the top three seeds. Seeds four and five were paired without a draw.
The six teams that advance to title games will compete at Target Field in Minneapolis on Monday, June 17. All three games will be webcast live by GrandStadium on Prep45.com. The Class A title game will begin at 10 a.m., followed by the Class AA championship game at 1 p.m. The Class AAA title game is scheduled for 4 p.m.
The initial rounds of the tournament will be played Thursday and Friday, June 13 and 14, at locations across the state. Class A quarterfinals, championship semifinals and the third-place game will be played at the Mini Met in Jordan, and consolation semifinals and consolation championship will be played at Chaska Athletic Park. The Class AA quarterfinals, championship semifinals and the third-place game will be played at Dick Putz Field, and consolation semifinals and consolation championship will be played at the adjacent Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud. The Class AAA quarterfinals, championship semifinals and the third-place game will be played at Midway Stadium in St. Paul, and consolation semifinals and consolation championship will be played at Dick Siebert Field on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.
Class A Quarterfinals
(Section 2) BOLD, Olivia (15-6) vs. (No. 1 Seed - Section 1) Wabasha-Kellogg (17-1) - 10:00 a.m. June 13 at Mini Met, Jordan.
(No. 5 Seed - Section 3) Windom Area (13-8) vs. (No. 4 Seed - Section 4) St. Agnes, St. Paul (13-6) - 12:30 p.m. June 13 at Mini Met, Jordan.
(Section 8) Blackduck (18-3) vs. (No. 3 Seed - Section 5) Osakis (18-2) - 3:00 p.m. June 13 at Mini Met, Jordan.
(Section 7) Floodwood (17-2) vs. (No. 2 Seed - Section 6) New York Mills (19-2) - 5:30 p.m. June 13 at Mini Met, Jordan.
Class AA Quarterfinals
(Section 3) Luverne (20-4) vs. (No. 1 Seed - Section 6) St. Cloud Cathedral (23-2) - 10:00 a.m. June 13 at Dick Putz Field, St. Cloud.
(No. 5 Seed - Section 1) Kasson-Mantorville (22-6) vs. (No. 4 Seed - Section 7) Hermantown (20-3) - 12:30 p.m. June 13 at Dick Putz Field, St. Cloud.
(Section 2) Watertown-Mayer (16-8) vs. (No. 3 Seed - Section 4) Minnehaha Academy, Minneapolis (17-5) - 3:00 p.m. June 13 at Dick Putz Field, St. Cloud.
(Section 8) Perham (16-5) vs. (No. 2 Seed - Section 5) Delano (17-2) - 5:30 p.m. June 13 at Dick Putz Field, St. Cloud.
Class AAA Quarterfinals
(Section 6) Wayzata (15-6) vs. (No. 1 Seed - Section 5) Coon Rapids (17-3) - 10:00 a.m. June 13 at Midway Stadium, St. Paul.
(No. 5 Seed - Section 7) Forest Lake (18-5) vs. (No. 4 Seed - Section 4) Mounds View (17-6) - 12:30 p.m. June 13 at Midway Stadium, St. Paul.
(Section 8) Rocori, Cold Spring (16-8) vs. (No. 3 Seed - Section 3) Lakeville North (19-4) - 3:00 p.m. June 13 at Midway Stadium, St. Paul.
(Section 1) Rochester Mayo (14-11) vs. (No. 2 Seed - Section 2) Minnetonka (21-6) - 5:30 p.m. June 13 at Midway Stadium, St. Paul.
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| BOLD’s Sandgren Survives Early Morning Nerves, Tosses One-Hitter |
Posted by John Millea (jmillea@mshsl.org)- Updated 6/17/2013 3:38:18 PM
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Nerves? Oh yes, there were plenty of nerves for the ballplayers who walked into Target Field for Monday’s baseball state championship games.
For BOLD pitcher Logan Sandgren, the nerves struck long before the first pitch of the Class 1A game at 10 a.m.
“I woke up at about 3:30, sat up for a little bit, had the butterflies. Eventually I went back to bed,” he said. “I got up at 6:30 and went to breakfast. I still had unbelievable nerves.”
 Once the lefthanded junior took the mound against Osakis, however, the nerves were nowhere to be seen … even if Sandgren was still feeling them. He very nearly pitched a no-hitter for the third consecutive game, giving up one hit in BOLD’s 3-0 victory over the Silverstreaks.
“I was nervous the first couple innings,” Sandgren said. “I was wild, and I sort of calmed down, put the ball in there and let the defense do its job.”
He threw 112 pitches, walked five and struck out six. The only hit for Osakis was a liner to center field by Douglas Zimmel with one out in the sixth inning. Sandgren had previously thrown no-hitters in the Section 2 playoffs and the state quarterfinals. Three games, one hit. Not bad, kid.
“He was a little more wild, he walked a few more but he was dominant again,” BOLD coach Brian Kingery said. “He battled. The thing with Logan is he gets better when he gets in the stretch. So he might walk a guy or have people on base, but he’s tough when he gets in the stretch. He bears down and he takes care of business.”
Tyler Seehusen had two hits and drove in two runs for the Warriors, and Sawyer Tersteeg also had an RBI.
KASSON’S QUESTION MARK IS ANSWERED
Coming into this season, a big question for the baseball team from Kasson-Mantorville revolved around the pitchers mound. The KoMets’ hitting appeared to be solid from the get-go, but senior Joey Hyde was the only experienced pitcher returning.
 All the questions were answered as the season went along, and the capper came with an 8-1 victory over Perham in Monday’s Class 2A state championship game. The KoMets finished with a record of 25-6 in winning their first state title, leaning on Hyde and fellow seniors Charlie Meyer and Riley Donovan.
By Kasson-Mantorville coach Broc Threinen’s reckoning, Donovan and Meyer combined to pitch only four innings during the 2012 season.
“We just had a lot of seniors throw last year,” the coach said. “We knew Charlie would be a good thrower. He had a good year last year in Legion and Riley did, too.”
Hyde gave up only five hits against Perham, striking out five and walking three while throwing 105 pitches. He also had one of the KoMets’ dozen hits; they scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning to give Hyde a cushion.
“I was a little nervous but I felt confident that we would hit the ball and that I would throw strikes,” he said. “And we came out in the first inning and got three runs right away. It gave me a lot of confidence. I never looked back.”
BIG HITS AND A STATE TITLE
Mounds View put on the biggest hitting display of Championship Monday, knocking out 14 hits in its 8-0 victory over Rocori in the Class 3A title game. Sam Hentges nearly hit for the cycle, belting a single, double and triple and driving in two runs for the Mustangs.
“We had a lot of focus today coming to the ballpark,” he said. “We took BP, on the bus we were all focused, people swung the bats today. It was a good day.”
Max Knutson was the winning pitcher for Mounds View, striking out nine and walking one while throwing 90 pitches.
“One of our goals from the beginning of the season was to make it to state,” Hentges said. “And our coach and our captains were like, ‘Why not win state, right?’ ” We thought we had the talent, a good team with a ton of seniors. We thought we could.”
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAMS
CLASS 1A/ Danny Kneeland, Windom; Riley Bernsdorf, Floodwood; Austin Baab, Cory Loechler, Wabasha-Kellogg; Alex Kleve, St. Agnes; Nick Kupfer, New York Mills; Riley Kramer, Logan Sandgren, Tyler Seehusen, BOLD; Jordan Frederick, Kilar Zimmel, Drew Fearing, Osakis.
CLASS 2A/ Zach Muckenhirn, Delano; Skyler Wenninger, Luverne; Matt Elsenpeter, Michael Herd, Watertown-Mayer; Jeff Fasching, Steven Neutzling, St. Cloud Cathedral; Josh Still, Eric Brauch, Austin Erickson, Perham; Riley Donovan, Jayden Prigge, Joey Hyde, Kasson-Mantorville.
CLASS 3A/ Beau Fandel, Forest Lake; Zach Creighton, Lakeville North; Tyler Kelm, Logan Shore, Coon Rapids; Luke Pettersen, Jared Ridge, Minnetonka; Mac Mueller, Reed Pfannenstein, Rocori; Alex Abercrombie, Sam Hentges, Max Knutson, Charlie Callahan, Mounds View.
TOURNAMENT TIDBITS
--Kasson-Mantorville’s Hyde got a sneak peak at Target Field on Sunday when he watched the Twins play the Detroit Tigers. In addition to visualizing himself on the mound, he also got a behind-the-scenes tour. “Our coach has a friend who works here and he gave me a tour of all the stuff,” Joey said. “I didn’t have to worry about coming here and being overly excited. I had already seen it.”
--Classy move by Twins general manager Terry Ryan, who came down on the field from his booth on the press level to congratulate the state champion BOLD Warriors.
BY THE NUMBERS
*Schools/teams John has visited: 747
*Miles John has driven in the Toyota Camry: 10,440
(*During the 2012-13 school year)
Follow John on Twitter: @MSHSLjohn
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