Burnsville makes it back to final

The Burnsville baseball team set a mental timer one year ago for a very important appointment. On Friday, the buzzer went off.

One season after narrowly falling to Eden Prairie in the state championship game, the Blaze has made it back by beating hot Rochester Century 6-4 in the Class 3A semifinals at Midway Stadium in St. Paul.

"It's a great feeling," said Blaze right fielder Andy Lieser, who had two hits and three RBI on the day. "After last year, all the upperclassmen got together ... we've been playing with a chip on our shoulder."

Until the sixth, they were also playing with a little bit of anxiety. Clinging to a one-run lead after taking a 4-3 lead on a three-run second inning, Burnsville had opportunities to create distance but muffed them. In the fifth, Justin Threkeld and Tyler Hanson cracked consecutive drives to put runners on second and third, but the next two batters grounded weakly and flied out, ending the threat.

"As you get older and the more times you see this, you're eating up inside, but you never want to let the kids see it," Blaze coach Mick Scholl said. "But I've seen this to know: we can come back, we can maintain this."

And they did, getting a critical RBI from Matt Stemper in the sixth to put them up by two and seemingly take the wind out of the Panthers, who went down 1-2-3 in a stellar defensive seventh inning that featured diving catches by Lieser and Stemper at short.

"Wow," Scholl said. "It just comes back to -- you don't expect it -- but these guys believe it."

"I don't really know if words could describe it right now," Maple Grove junior Brady Jacobs said. "I've never been on a team that's made it to a championship like this."

The Crimson did what it does best, getting on the board early when Roman Collins drove in Logan Hershey in the first inning.

"That's something we really emphasize," Jacobs said. "It really helps to get on top, and it just helps break down the game."

Maple Grove added two in the third when Stillwater starter Joe Zorn threw two wild pitches and had a throwing error that let in one run and set up a sacrifice fly.

But after the third inning, Zorn settled down, laid off his fastball in favor of more off-speed pitches and stifled the Crimson offense, facing only one batter over the minimum over the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

Added Maple Grove coach Darby Carlson: "I think their pitcher got a lot tougher. We're probably fortunate that we got a few runs early."

The Ponies went down in order in three of the final four innings before giving up one last run to Maple Grove in the seventh.