Continued: Prep baseball: Tournament story lines

A No. 1 vs. No. 2 outstate final? Top-ranked Grand Rapids and No. 2 Rochester John Marshall are the only top-10 teams to reach the 3A state tournament. They are in opposite brackets, and should both reach the title game it would be the first all-outstate big-school championship since 1988, when Owatonna beat Grand Rapids for the title.

Repeat after me: no repeat winners: Three new champions will be crowned because none of the 2007 champs qualified for state this time around. Last year's winners were Cretin-Derham Hall in 3A, St. Cloud Cathedral in 2A and Sleepy Eye St. Mary's in 1A.

Timing is everything: Mayer Lutheran qualified in 1A with an 8-15 record; at one point this season, the Crusaders lost 11 of 12 games. ... 3A Coon Rapids lost seven of its first eight games but has won 14 of 18 since. ... 2A Winona Cotter started the season 4-8 but has reeled off 13 victories in its past 15 games. ... 1A Hawley, making its first state appearance, is 15-2. The Nuggets won a total of 20 games in the previous five years .

Rising from the depths: Three teams from the Lake Conference -- Chaska, Bloomington Jefferson and Rosemount -- qualified for the 3A tournament, yet none of them finished higher than fourth in the league standings. Jefferson and Rosemount meet in today's quarterfinals.

Players to watch

• Chaska senior pitcher Brad Hand, the Metro Player of the Year, was drafted by Florida in the second round of the major league draft.

• Rochester John Marshall senior Jordan Rishavy has a .488 batting average with five homers and 30 RBI.

• Albany's Kurt Schlangen, a Gophers signee, holds school records for hits and doubles and has a 17-1 pitching record in the past two years. He also is a three-time qualifier for the state wrestling tournament.

• Thief River Falls/Goodridge pitcher Spencer Johnson, who has signed with North Dakota State, has struck out 97 hitters in 55 innings.

• Winona Cotter senior Thomas O'Brien pitched only 14 innings during the regular season, but he had three victories -- two in relief -- in the Section 1 tournament. O'Brien, who will play quarterback at Division I South Dakota State, is the brother of Cotter coach Mat O'Brien.

• Cherry senior Eddie Skaudis threw a 10-inning two-hitter with three walks (two intentional) and scored the winning run in a 1-0 victory over Chisholm that let the Tigers advance to the state tournament.

JOHN MILLEA