2023 Class A Baseball State Championship: Fosston 3, Lyle/Pacelli 2

With a baseball championship on the line, it got a little tense for the Fosston High School baseball team on Friday, June 16.

But the Greyhounds managed to find a way out of trouble in the form of a bases loaded jam to claim its first Minnesota State High School League baseball championship with a 3-2 victory over Lyle/Pacelli in the Class A championship game at CHS Field in downtown St. Paul. Junior right-hander Hudson Boushee scattered four hits over the first six innings to earn the win while older brother, Carsen, picked up the save by working the seventh inning.

Hudson Boushee, who allowed just four hits and struck out half a dozen batters, was replaced by Carsen because he had thrown 114 pitches. The Athletics promptly loaded the bases with no outs on singles by Jack Klingfus and Landon Meyer and a Trey Anderson walk. After Mac Nelson struck out, VaDeer walked to force in a run. Carsen Boushee then fanned Truckenmiller and induced Nelson to ground out to first base to end the game.

The Greyhounds (23-4) needed to win their last three games to even make the state tournament field.

After scoring 18 runs in their first two games, the bats were held to five hits by Lyle/Pacelli senior Mac Nelson. Fosston pushed across an unearned run in the second inning and upped the margin to 2-0 in the fourth frame when Breckin Levin doubled and eventually scored on Zach Theis’ sacrifice fly. The Athletics, who left the bases loaded in the fourth inning, cut the lead in half in the sixth. Hunter VaDeer led off with his second single of the game. Jacob Truckenmiller moved him to third on a single and Isaac Nelson’s sacrifice fly made it 2-1.

In the bottom of the inning, Carsen Boushee led off with a walk and came home for what proved to be the winning run when Aaron Norland doubled into the right center field alley.

It was just the third time in school history the Greyhounds had even made the state tournament. Their previous best finish was a fourth-place standing in 2017. The Athletics (24-2), who won 15 games in a row prior to the title game, played in their first state tournament as a merged entity.