John's Journal: One Moment, One Hug, That Meant Everything

On the final weekend of the 2023-2024 school year, in the ballpark that every baseball-loving kid in Minnesota dreams about, four state champions were decided after a week of weather delays, uncertainty and waiting … waiting … and more waiting.

Once the action got going at Target Field, it was well worth the wait. That was seen clearly in the smiles on the faces of the winners and on the camaraderie and togetherness, and yes, even the smiles, displayed by players on teams that finished as state runner-ups.

I have been writing about sports since I was a sophomore in high school, and that was 50 years ago. One big thing I have learned over the decades is advice I like to pass on to young reporters: If you show up, you never know what you might see. Even if you go to a game or an event with no specific story in mind, the chances are good that something will happen to spark a story.

On Friday afternoon at Target Field, that advice was in full force. I walked into the ballpark with several coverage ideas in my head, mostly focused on the fact that the four games were originally scheduled for Monday, June 17, but were held up until Friday and Saturday, the 21st and 22nd.

We’ll get to that in a bit, but the thing that struck me the most, the thing that impressed me the most, the thing that will stick with me until I draw my last breath, took place before the bottom of the final inning in the Class 2A game.

Rockford led Foley by a score of 6-0, and Rockets pitcher William Haas had been masterful. He had thrown a perfect game through 5 2/3 innings until Foley’s Alexander Jennissen hit a slow bouncer back to the mound. Haas ran to the ball and fired to first base, but Jennissen got there quickly and beat the throw. That was the only baserunner for the Falcons as Haas struck out 13 with no walks while throwing 89 pitches. Only three balls were hit to the outfield.

As the Rockets took the field for the bottom of the seventh, three outs from their dreams, Haas completed his warmup throws and the infielders wrapped up their routine of corralling ground balls from first baseman Cotton Lundberg and throwing back to him.

Before Foley’s Josiah Petersen stepped into the batter’s box to lead off, Rockford third baseman Patrick Binnebose – who like Haas had just completed his junior year of high school – walked to the edge of the mound. William took a few steps to meet his friend, and they hugged. The two simply embraced. The whole thing might have lasted for three seconds, but it was as strong a moment as I can remember in watching thousands of games in lots of sports.

Petersen flied out to left fielder Riley Strehler, who made a Willie Mays-style running catch, and Brett Leabch struck out. The game ended when Reed Hermanson hit a groundball to Rockford second baseman Riley Moran, who tossed to Lundberg for the final out.  

Now everybody was running toward Hass and yelling, leaping, creating the championship dog pile that they had been dreaming about.

I asked William about the moment when he and Patrick hugged. He smiled at the thought.

“He and I worked together all winter. We were in the weight room, throwing, hitting together every single day. So this was just kind of the culmination of all the work that we put in, and obviously the other guys doing their jobs, too. We’re really good friends. So just being able to share this moment with him is incredible.”

That’s it right there. It can be challenging to sum up, to put a pin in, exactly what high school athletics are all about. But that moment, seeing two young men not afraid to hug each other in the biggest moment of their young lives, to express themselves like that amidst a society that sometimes emphasizes the silly notion of so-called “alpha males” and can discourage displays of love and togetherness … well, I’ll never forget it.

While interviewing players and coaches after the four state championship games, a common theme came up: Waiting four or five days to play was similar to the usual routine early in the season, when cold, wet weather causes delays.

“This was a little new, but it's still like the beginning of the year, getting ready for the first game of the year,” said Rockford coach Cody Hallahan. “(The players) just stuck with it and kept doing what we've been doing and having fun.”

Monday was a tight window for playing baseball. The Twins were in the midst of a homestand that lasted through Thursday; they had Monday off. Another stadium option is CHS Field in St. Paul, but the Saints were on a homestand that extended longer than the Twins’ stay at Target Field.

And because rain fell throughout the week, there weren’t many options. I was chatting on the phone with another member of the local media at midweek, who asked, “What are you going to do? Declare co-champions?”

I made it clear that even if it took until the Fourth of July, the games would indeed be played. The decision was to split the four games over two days, in the knowledge that predicting weather is imprecise and in the hope that breaks in rainfall would make finishing all four contests possible.

Oh, there were delays. After Springfield defeated Parkers Prairie 5-1 in Friday’s opening game in Class 1A, the Target Field grounds crew pulled the tarp out over the infield as rain fell. About 90 minutes later, Rockford and Foley were playing baseball. And Saturday’s Class 4A game between Mounds View was halted for a rain delay in the fourth inning that lasted a bit more than two hours.

The teams from Parkers Prairie and Springfield spent Sunday night in Twin Cities hotels. On Monday morning, with first pitch scheduled for 10 a.m., they never went to the ballpark, instead driving back home after the games were called.

“It's been a hurry-up-and-wait type thing,” Springfield coach Brandon Wilhelmi said after Friday’s game. “We looked at the forecast today and we thought it was going to happen. The high school league does a great job and the Twins are fantastic and here we are.

“We had some practices try to keep the kids fresh, but you’ve got to give it to the kids. They're the ones who had to be mentally ready. They make me look good. They stayed loose and they’re having a good time.”

After Totino-Grace defeated Mahtomedi 2-1 in Saturday’s Class 3A game, Eagles coach Mike Smith talked about filling the time while waiting to play.

“This late in the season, you kind of go, ‘OK, I'm out of material.’ The coaches, we got together and tried to be creative and not make it boring and not feel like we’re running them into the ground. And so we tried to do a couple of different little things and yet still kind of follow our routines a little bit.

“We kept lifting and we kept to our practices. We do certain things in practice on certain days, and we kind of kept pushing our goals and routines. We did kind of shorten things down a little bit and just tried to kind of keep it fresh. Because, you know, a week is a long time to wait for baseball. Normally we're playing four games in a week.”

Totino-Grace shortstop Brayden Morel, who scored the winning run on a third-inning single by Noah Hill, said the wait was well worth it.

“We've been anxious to play at beautiful Target Field,” he said. “But we kept it together. We kept grinding. A couple days we were in the gym because of the rain. We knew that we had to come out here and give it our all, we couldn't take days off. Everyone kept it together, kept working at it and we knew that this was going to be our day and we had to make the most of it.

“It was pretty similar to early in the year. But we just knew that this was our last game as a team and everyone pulled through.”

It wasn’t just players, coaches and fans who had to wait. The changing schedule of games also impacted the umpires assigned to the championships.

Marshall Behrens of Rochester was scheduled to work the Class 1A game on Monday. He traveled to Burnsville on Sunday to spend the night with his wife’s parents, but much like the teams that had made the trip, he didn’t walk into Target Field until five days later, when he was the first base umpire for the Class 3A game.

After Monday’s games were called off, Behrens drove back to Rochester, put on a suit and tie and spent the rest of the day in his job at Mayo Clinic.

“You adapt and you survive,” he said. “As an umpire, athlete or coach, it’s a good problem to have when you still have a game in late June.”

Behrens, one of the top multi-sport officials in Minnesota, worked a baseball state championship game for the fourth time. He had previously umpired title games in St. Cloud and Midway Stadium in St. Paul as well as Target Field. He also has championship game experience in softball, football and basketball.

One of the most impressive aspects of the state championship games was the talented pitchers, as well as the variety of pitches they threw. Along with Haas’ near-perfect game for Rockford, Springfield’s Jakob Nachreiner struck out 11 and walked two, allowing just four hits while throwing 98 pitches against Parkers Prairie. He also had three hits in the leadoff spot.

Jakob told me he throws a fastball, curveball, cutter and changeup.

“This game is by far going to be my favorite for probably the rest of my life,” he said. “It's a great feeling.”

Rockford’s Hass threw a mix of fastballs, changeups, curveballs, sliders and one other pitch.

“I can't remember what inning it was, but I mixed in a splitter, too,” he said.

William, who has one year of high school baseball left, has committed to the University of Tennessee. The Volunteers and Texas A&M are playing in the deciding series of the College World Series in Omaha.

Haas’ allegiance was clear from head to toe. Under his cap he wore a bandana of orange and white (Tennessee colors) and his spikes bore an orange and white checkerboard pattern.

Speaking of Texas A&M, East Ridge’s Maxwell Arlich -- who got the win in the Raptors’ 3-2 decision over Mounds View in the Class 4A game – is headed to a college baseball career with A&M. Arlich struck out five, walked none and held the Mustangs to four hits (giving up no earned runs) while throwing 73 pitches.

Mounds View starter Tyler Guerin, who will play at the University of Iowa, gave up three hits and one earned run while throwing 80 pitches in five innings.

Saturday’s Class 3A game was at first scheduled for an 11 a.m. start, but on Friday it was pushed to 10:30 a.m. in the hopes that an earlier start would allow for a better chance to finish both games that day.

One person especially happy with the time change was Totino-Grace’s Smith. His son, Tanner, just finished his senior year at the school and his graduation party was scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday. The Eagles’ game ended at 12:12 p.m. and Tanner’s dad made it with plenty of time to spare.

The end of the baseball state tournament marked the close of my 14^th year with the Minnesota State High School League. It’s been a dream job from the first day and I’m planning to continue the good fortune of doing this work for one more school year, with the intention of retiring from my position with the MSHSL in the summer of 2025.

I’m excited about what the 2024-2025 school year will hold.

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]