Class 1A baseball state final: New Life Academy edges New York Mills

The Woodbury school beat previously unbeaten New York Mills in the final.

By Ron Haggstrom ron.haggstrom@startribune.com

New York Mills, the lone remaining unbeaten team in the state, ran out of late-inning heroics Monday.

New Life Academy built a quick five-run lead, and then held on to edge New York Mills 5-4 in the Class 1A finals on a breezy day at Target Field. It was the Woodbury-based school's first appearance in the state tournament.

"I know I won't be able to comprehend this for a couple of days," New Life Academy coach Dave Darr said. "Wow! This is exciting."

New York Mills reached the title game with back-to-back victories over Ely and Chatfield in the bottom of the seventh inning.

"We made the game interesting like we have down all year, but we didn't panic," Darr said. "Sam [Horner] shut the door."

"After seeing my brother struggle walking guys [five in four innings], I just wanted to throw strikes," Sam Horner said. "I wanted to get ahead of the hitters."

The hit he yielded was a one-out double to Tyler Patron in the bottom of the seventh inning. He retired the following two batters on groundouts.

"I took a huge breath," Horner said. "It was in relief and celebration."

New Life Academy (25-4) jumped on New York Mills in the opening inning, just like it had done to its previous two opponents in the state tournament. John Horner singled up the middle with two outs, and Simon Killeen delivered a run-scoring double to left-center field.

The lead grew to 5-0 in the following frame. Back-to-back errors by New York Mills loaded the bases before senior Matthew Palkovich had a two-run double and Sam Horner followed with a two-run single.

New York Mills got one run back in the bottom half of the frame. Patron scored on Daniel Kraft's sacrifice fly to left field with the bases loaded.

New York Mills (25-1) closed to within 5-4 with a three-run fourth inning. The first two runs scored on an error on the right fielder while losing pitcher Brandon Kupfer plated the last one with an RBI double to left field.

"We got too comfortable," Sam Horner said. "They made some mistakes early, and then we let them back in by making mistakes ourselves."

None of which came after Sam Horner took to the mound. "This means a lot to us since we're just building a program," he said. "We're the real deal."