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:
For section tournament brackets tap here
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.”
