Air Freight Unlimited State Class B Baseball Champions

The Minnesota Baseball Association brought Class A teams into the Class B State Amateur Baseball Tournament to expand the field and make it single elimination.

Two Class A teams and two Class B teams were in the semifinals against each other assuring a Class A vs. Class B Championship game.

Class A  Air Freight Unlimited defeated the Shakopee Indians 4-2 in Dassel tonight.

If I ran the tournament the Class C and Class B Championship games would be played on Labor Day back to back in the same ballpark.

It's nice to be able to see both title games without making another trip to the park.

In the semifinals Shakopee outslugged Cold Spring 11-8 in a game that was riddled with 7 total errors.

The Springers had a 4-0 lead after two innings and led 7-6 after 7 innings.

Shakopee put 5 runs on the board in the 8th inning to finish the comeback win.  The Indians had 5 pitchers take the mound and Cold Spring went with 4 pitchers.

Vinny Schleper started the game for Shakopee throwing the first 5 innings with 5 hits scattered, 4 runs, 3 earmed allowed, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts.

The 4th pitcher for Shakopee Alex Ege was credited with the win while going 2/3 of an inning.  He walked a batter but no runs scored. Jake Skogrand pitched the last 2 innings with 3 hits, an unearned run on his ledger.

Beck Lesch started for the Springers and went 5.2 innings with 6 hits scattered, 4 runs allowed, 4 walks, 4 strikeouts.

Brady Klehr, the third pitcher in the game was saddled with the loss after throwing 1 inning.  4 hits happened, 5 runs, 1 earned with a walk.

A combined 27 hits accompanied 19 runs with 7 errors in the game.  Shakopee had 4 errors, Cold Spring 3.  The Springers had 13 hits compared to 14 for the Indians.

Shakopee had 6 players with multiple hit games led by Aaron Olson with 3 hits including a double and 5 RBI.  Kolin Williams had 2 hits including a double and 2 RBI

Cold Spring had 6 doubles in the game hit by six different players.

Air Freight Unlimited ended the Minnestonka Millers season 5-2 in Dassel.  Graham Laubscher went the distance on the mound for Unlimited giving up 3 hits in the game while recording 21 strikeouts with 2 walks.

Laubscher would also get the save in the title game.

Minnetonka had 4 pitchers throw with Tom Skoro starting and going 4 innings with 7 hits allowed, 2 runs, 2 strikeouts, 1 walk.

Charlie Bartholomew had 3 hits including a home run and 2 RBI for Air Freight and Kyle Halverson added 2 hits and RBI.  Five different players had a multi-hit game.  Chandler Schaefbauer tallied 3 hits with an RBI.

In the championship contest Air Freight won with 3 hits, including 2 doubles.  One was off the bat of Sam Kulesa with 2 RBI, Kyle Halverson cracked the other double with 2 RBI also.

Joey Connelly started the game pitching for Shakopee, walked 5 batters, struck out 8 and hit a batter in 5 innings of work with 4 runs scored, 2 earned.

Thomas Wilkie threw 3 innings of hitless, scoreless relief with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.

Jaker Schnettler started on the mound for Air Freight Unlimited going 3 innings with 3 hits 1 run given up, not earned.  He gave up 3 walks, had 1 strikeout.

Cole Gnetz threw 3 inings of 2-hit, no-run ball for the win with 4 strikeouts and 2 walks.  Gnetz played his college ball at Miami of Ohio after graduating from Cretin Derham Hall High School.

The right-handed pitcher from Woodbury, Mn. graduated from Miami of Ohio in 2019 and appeared in 56 games with a 8-7 record and 4.94 career ERA. In 120.1 innings pitched achieved 145 strikeouts, 95 walks, with 105 hits, opponent batting average of .232.

Laubscher from Stillwater threw the final two innings with no hits allowed and 5 strikeouts.

He is the all-time strikeouts leader in University of St. Thomas Baseball and is a Associate Business Intelligence Analyst with Jack Link's Protein Snacks.

The Air Freight lineup is packed with Division I St. Thomas University players and former players.