By Matt Krumrie
MaxPreps.com
Baseball
Central Scores 33 Runs in Win: It would have even been a big win in football. Tuesday, Central used a 15-run fifth inning to cruise to a 33-3 win over Arlington in St. Paul City Conference action. The Minutemen, in contention for the St. Paul City Conference baseball title, scored 3, 1, 9, 15 and 5 runs in the win.They had 25 hits – two by Jake Abrahams, who had five RBI.
One To Remember: Rosemount defeated Chaska 3-2 in a Lake Conference baseball game for the ages. Rosemount pitcher Blake Schwartz struck out 13 to earn the complete game win. Schwartz gave up both runs in the first inning and shut down the high-powered Hawks the rest of the way. The win for Schwartz and the Irish came against Chaska ace Brad Hand, who was among the state leaders in wins and strikeouts heading into the game. Hand was his usual stellar self, striking out 10 in a complete game performance, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the Irish.
Boys Golf
Elk River, Rogers Win Conference Meets: Elk River won the Northwest Suburban Conference meet with a score of 302, 10 strokes ahead of second place Osseo (312) and 12 strokes ahead of third-place Maple Grove (314). Mike Nielsen of Osseo, Kyle Coyne of Maple Grove, and Tim Petersen of Maple Grove tied for medalist honors with an 18 hole score of 73 each.
Rogers won the Mississippi 8 Conference meet with a score of 297, ahead of Princeton (316) and Buffalo (317). Corey Muenzhuber of Rogers and Brandon Hanson of Princeton tied for medalist honors, with both shooting 18 hole scores of 71.
Girls Golf
Minnewaska Area Sets State Record: Are they the best girls team in state history? This isn’t speculation, especially after the Minnewaska Area High girls golf team shot a state-record two-day score of 292 (143-149) at the West Central Conference meet last week. It was only the second time a Minnesota girls team has shot under 300. The other team to do it? Minnewaska Area, last year in the Section 6A meet.
In a key individual battle this week, Forest Lake’s Betsy Kelly outdueled Henry Sibley’s Lizzy Carl at the Red Wing Invitational.Kelly defeated Carl on the first hole of a playoff after both tied with an 18-hole score of 76. As for the team competition, no surprise - Minnewaska Area won the title.
Softball
Park Player Packing a Punch: It’s been a heck of a career for Park (Cottage Grove) High School softball coach Charlie Whitbred. In his 27th year of coaching, Whitbred won his 500th career game May 6 with a 9-0 Suburban East Conference win over Cretin-Derham Hall. He’s had plenty of good teams over the years – and another good one this year. The Wolfpack won 17 of their first 19 games and were ranked fifth in the state before clinching the SEC title earlier this week. The Wolfpack’s Sam Hildebrandt is among the metro pitching leaders, and is leading everyone in another category – home runs. She added two more to make it 11 home runs on the season in a 6-5 win over Mounds View Wednesday. Hildebrandt hit a two-run home run in the first inning, and then won the game with another in the bottom of the seventh. Earlier in the week the Wolfpack squeaked out a 14-13 win over Hastings, led by a bases-clearing triple by Kelsey Waltz and a two-run home run from Ashley Kluever. With players like this, no wonder Whitbred still enjoys coaching after all these years.
Tennis
Harding Wins City Tennis Title: St. Paul Harding won its first St. Paul City Conference tennis title in 18 years this week. Among key players for the Knights are Caleb Kauss, Sebastian Adesoro, and Ricky Vang.
Battle of Ranked Teams Goes to Swanson: In a key battle of highly-ranked Twin Cities tennis players Paul Swanson of Blaine, ranked No. 3 in Twin Cities rankings, defeated No. 5 ranked Scott Sundstrom of Centennial 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 to lead the Bengals to a 4-3 win over Centennial.
Inside the Numbers
74 – Wins for the Eden Prairie girls lacrosse team the past four years. The Eagles are 74-1-1 in that span and have four state titles heading into this week’s state tournament.
72 – Girls out for the Harding High School badminton team this spring.
42 – Wins for the Harding boys tennis trio of Kauss, Adesoro and Vang. The trio only lost 11 matches all season.
38-10.5 – The Twin Cities leading triple jump distance for Roseville’s Stormy Nesbit.
29 – Runs Batted In for Brett Pioske of Sibley East, tops in the Twin Cities area heading into mid-week action
12 – Goals scored by Rochester in a state quarterfinal girls lacrosse win over Mounds View. The Renegades won 12-5 behind three goals andtwo assists from Justin Savage, three goals and assist from Shannon Clark, anda goal and an assist from Kelsey Mundell, Michelle Bonapace and Katie Frsichmann.
11.92 – The Twin Cities best 100 time in girls track. That time belongs to Kylie Peterson of Apple Valley, who also has the best time in the 200 at 25.33.
3 – Consecutive state badminton titles Harding has now won with its 5-2 win over Eden Prairie Wednesday.
3 - Events won by Josh Carter of Duluth Denfeld Tuesday in a meet at Duluth’s public schools stadium. The senior won the 100 (11.14) , the 200 (23.2) and the400 (52.07)
