By Matt Krumrie
MaxPreps.com
Baseball
There isn’t much on the baseball field that Chaska’s Brad Hand doesn’t do. The 6-foot-3 lefty with the 90-plus mile per hour fastball was 5-1 with a 0.55 ERA for a Hawks team that was 14-7 heading into the postseason. He struck out 65 batters, hit .344 and had six home runs. For that, he was named Minnesota’s Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year.
Grand Rapids, the top-ranked team in the state in Class AAA by the Minnesota Baseball Coaches Association, earned an impressive 7-4 win over Class AA No.6-ranked Cloquet recently. Heading into the postseason coach Bill Kinnunen’s squad is 19-1 and has outscored opponents 191-45. The Thunderhawks closed regular season action with two wins – 9-1 over St. Francis, and 15-1 over Princeton. They are the top seed in 7AAA.
In another recent game Billy Shaw, Jack Moore, Kyle Figgins and Sam Sparen had three hits each in a 14-1 win over Superior.
Among the state leaders in the MaxPreps.com stats heading into action May 30:
Batting Average:
Ethan Green, Minneapolis Southwest - .576
Tim Brogan, Blackduck - .565
Aanders Johnson, Fosston - .557
John Licht – Minneapolis Southwest - .556
J Althoff, Delano - .553
RBI
Brett Pioske, Sibley East – 35
Eric Koehler, Holy Family Catholic – 35
Jeff Miller, Minneapolis Washburn
Kirk Kenneally, Andover – 31
Joe Loftus, Holy Angels – 31
Softball
Section finals are being played – weather permitting – across the state this week. A rainy week has forced numerous delays and cancellations. Here is a look at some teams who have emerged and will be playing in the upcoming state softball tournament:
Becker earned the Section 6, AA softball title with a 6-0 win over Rocori Thursday. Kristen Fah walked one and gave up one hit to earn the shutout win, and three Bulldgos – Jenna Hamann, Leah Hendrickx and Stephanie Nelson – hit a combined four home runs to power Becker’s offense in the win.
St. Anthony advanced to the 2A state tournament for the third straight season with a 8-2 win over St. Paul Academy in the Section 4 title game. Brittney Ranallo’s bases loaded double scored three runs in a four-run second inning. Rose Tusa struck out nine to earn the win.
Megan Mullen struck out 11 and allowed only two hits to help Hermantown defeat Eveleth-Gilbert in the 7AA title game. Ellen Folman had two doubles and 2 RBI in the win.
A number of section finals were being played Friday and Saturday as rain pushed back many games throughout the state.
Lacrosse
Blake won the boys and girls state lacrosse titles last week, with both teams defeating Eden Prairie in the process. The boys won 16-5, while the girls avenged last year’s finals loss to Eden Prairie with a 11-10 overtime win.
Kip Dooley, who will attend Dartmouth next season led the Blake boys and set many state records during his magnificent career. Among his records – most points one game (9), most goals one game (6), most goals-tournament (8), most points-tournament (13). Dooley finished the season with 68 goals and 38 assists. Blake also set state records for most goals-tournament (31) and most goals one game (16).
Eastview finished third with a 18-6 win over White Bear Lake Area High School. Tim Rondorf, Andy Freeman and Rex Sanders combined for 19 points. Freeman had six goals, Sanders and Rondoff three each.
It was The Blake School’s first girls lacrosse championship in the second year of High School League-sponsored state tournaments. Blake also won titles in 1999 and 2000 when the tournament was sponsored by the North Central School Girls Lacrosse Association.
Hilary Hayssen scored three goals, Julia Hawkins had three goals and two assists and Michelle Tremblay scored two goals and had an assist. Alyssa Veil, Hillary Crowe, Jillian Avery, and also scored for Blake. Goalie Abby Fink made 10 saves in the win.
Anna Eidem scored four goals as Totino-Grace defeated Bloomington Kennedy 7-4 in the third-place game.
Track and Field Notes
St. Paul Harding senior Sadie Pollard saw her dreams of winning a fourth Class 2A state title in the 400 meter dash came to an end Thursday in Section 4 action. Pollard reportedly was injured and did not finish the race. She did win the 100 and 200 meter dashes and has qualified for state in both of those events. She has won three state titles in the 200 and one in the 100. She has missed most of the season because of an ongoing thigh injury.
Inside the Numbers
613 – Total score of Lakeville North, winners of the Section 1AA boys golf tournament. North won by 14 strokes over runner-up Austin.
147 – Score of Austin’s Drew Osier, medalist of the Section 1AA event.
3:20 – Minutes into overtime when Blake’s Hilary Hayssen scored the winning goal (and her third of the game) in Blake’s 11-10 win over Eden Prairie in the girls state lacrosse state finals.
43 – Seconds remaining in regulation of the girls state lacrosse finals when Hayssen scored her second goal of the game, forcing the overtime.
30 – Stolen bases by Eric Anderson of Concordia-Academy of Bloomington, tops in the state in the MaxPreps.com stats.
15.39 – 110-meter time of Marvin Matthews of Roseville in the Suburban East Conference meet – which helped him earn the conference title in that event. He also won the long jump (21-4 ½) and was second in the 300 hurdles (40.25).
9 – Home runs for Sam Ryan of Tartan this spring – which led the Twin Cities during the regular season.
5 – Matches won by the Duluth East boys tennis team in a 5-2 7AA section final win over Grand Rapids.
