Section baseball tournaments kept chugging over the weekend toward the goal of filling four state tournament brackets by the end of the week. The Minnesota State High School League plans to release state brackets June 11. Here's a look at some weekend high points:
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New Prague reaches section final
New Prague rallied to defeat fourth-seeded Rochester Mayo 2-1 in eight innings Saturday in the Class 4A, Section 1 semifinals at Dundas Memorial Field.
Michael Beckius lifted a fly ball down the right-field line to score Karder Schmoll. Mayo right fielder Spencer Kober made the catch on the run and made a strong throw to the plate, but Schmoll slid under the tag for the winning run.
New Prague (17-6) will play Farmington (22-3) on Tuesday at Dundas Memorial Field for the section championship.
"He probably should have taken the first pitch to get runners on second and third, but he ended [up] swinging and it created chaos," New Prague coach Tanner Oakes said. "The right fielder had to go a long ways. It was a tough play for him to catch it and make a throw home. We weren't having a lot of opportunities, so it was good time to be aggressive and take the chance."
New Prague tied the score 1-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning with another aggressive baserunning play. Tanner Nordrum scored from second base on a fielder's choice by Sam Helgestad. Novak was caught rounding third base, but a couple of low throws allowed him to score.
"[Tanner] was aggressive. Their defense made the right play and didn't throw it to first base," Oakes said. "They looked to third. Tanner was kind of far off the base. We got kind of lucky. They threw one in the dirt, and then the third baseman threw it in the dirt at home plate. We were caught in the middle a little bit there. We got the run. It was a series of fortunate events there for us."
Mayo (12-11) took a 1-0 lead three batters into the game on a single by Michael Johnson that scored Carson Beavers. New Prague pitcher Sam Gilles settled down to retire 23 of the next 30 batters.
In the elimination bracket of the section, top-seeded Farmington got 14 shutout innings from three pitchers to reach the final.
Joe Baldus and Dillon Carlson combined to hold Rochester Century scoreless for a 4-0 win in the quarterfinal. Brandon Lund completed a sweep of Rochester teams with a 2-0 shutout of Mayo. Lund also had two hits, two stolen bases and two RBI.
"We've had good pitching and defense all year," Farmington coach Jonathan Graff said. "[That] has been our calling card. We know if we get a run or two we have a good chance to win."
Minnetonka defeats Eden Prairie
Third-seeded Minnetonka gave up a run in the first inning but got one run apiece in the fourth and fifth to beat fourth-seeded Eden Prairie 2-1 in the semifinal round of Class 4A, Section 2.
Eden Prairie (14-8) had a chance to break the game open in the top of the fourth inning after loading the bases with two outs. Evan Kueppers came on in relief for Minnetonka and got a ground-ball out to end the inning.
The Skippers (16-7) scored in the bottom of the inning with the help of an Eagles error. Will Koeppen and Nathan Wheeler followed with back-to-back doubles in the fifth to put the Skippers ahead for good.
Minnetonka will rest in the winners bracket until Wednesday's matchup with the elimination bracket survivor.
Orono walks off Cooper
Orono got pitching, defense and timely hitting to stay alive in Class 3A, Section 6.
Carson Lucey hit a walk-off single and Ronan Barnett and Dane Kanwischer combined to throw a no-hitter to give the fifth-seeded Spartans (8-14) a 1-0 win over seventh-seeded Cooper in the quarterfinal round of the elimination bracket at Fortin Field in Hamel.
With two outs and a runner on third, the Hawks intentionally walked Easton Aherns, the Spartans' leading hitter, to face Lucey, the No. 2 hitter in the order. Lucey was hitless in three at-bats before bouncing the game-winning hit up the middle.
Kam Fox pitched 6⅔ innings for the Hawks (6-17) with nine strikeouts. He became the ace of the staff after missing time early in the season because of an injury.
Orono's next elimination game comes Tuesday against Mound Westonka at Delano.
