Minnesota Baseball Class B State Final Determined

The Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament concludes tomorrow. Class B could be over today when the Chanhassen Red Birds face the Miesville Mudhens.  If Chanhassen wins it will  be their 4th consecutive title.  If Miesville wins the 7:00 p.m. game in Chaska the two teams will return tomorrow for a 3:00 p.m. game.

The Red Birds edged Miesville 3-2 Friday night to advance and wait for the team that comes out of the elimination bracket in the double-elimination portion of the tournament.

When the teams left number four the double elimination kicks in.  The final four were Miesville, New Market, Champlin Park and Chanhassen.

Miesville rolled past the New Market Muskies 8-1 while Chanhassen got by the Champlin Park LoGators 7-4 last Sunday.

This weekend Champlin Park defeated New Market 4-2 ending the Muskies season.

Miesville then downed Champlin Park 5-4 to end the LoGators season.

That sets up the Class B title showdown with Chanhassen one win from their 4th consecutive State Championship.

In the New Market contest the game was tied at 1 going into the 7th inning.  Both teams scored their run in the second inning.  New Market was the home team in the game played in Waconia.

Champlin Park scored 3 runs in the top of the 7th inning.

The LoGators scored two of their runs on sacrifice flies and had a sacrifice bunt to advance a runner in the elimination game victory.

New Market committed 3 errors while Champlin Park played errorless ball.

The LoGators got a complete game from pitcher Sam Riola.  The Muskies also got a complete game performance from Brett Herber.

Both pitchers allowed 6 hits and 1 walk.  Riola struck out 10 while Herber fanned 6 LoGators.

Both pitchers batted in the game.  Herber had 2 hits including a double and scored one of the New Market runs.  Riola collected 3 hits including a double for Champlin Park.

In addition to Herber's 2 hits for New Market Blake Schmit had a RBI hit, Taylor Pagel stroked a single, Tyler Bergstrom had a hit, Spencer Klein a hit.  Joe McKibben had the other RBI for the Dakota Rice Scott League team.

Both Chanhassen and MIesville have a player on their roster that have had a significant presence on KDHL broadcasted games over the years.

Brian Sprout played high school ball in Lake City before excelling on the gridiron as well as the baseball diamond at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

The baseball Head Coach for the East Ridge Raptors 2019 State Champions is not only in the St. Olaf Athletics Hall of Fame.  His #28 baseball jersey was retired.  His Oles baseball teams captured 3 MIAC Championships.

Sprout was Conference Player of the Year three seasons and a four-time All Conference performer. The two-time All-American played in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization for a few years and also was with the St. Paul Saints.

The East Ridge social studies teacher was also an outstanding wide receiver while at St. Olaf.

East Ridge High School is in Woodbury, Mn.

Logan Spitzack was a standout in three sports at Triton High School in Dodge Center before he went on to play baseball at St. Cloud State University.  He graduated from Triton High School in 2011.

Spitzack was quarterback on a football team that was undefeated until facing Caledonia in the Class AA State Title game in 2010.  The Warriors ended a undefeated season with a 28-7 victory over the Cobras.

He scored a Hiawatha Valley League record 60 points on February 1, 2011 in a hotly contested game against the Cannon Falls Bombers that I was honored to call on KDHL Radio.  Spitzack scored every way imaginable in the contest that Triton lost in overtime 88-76.

The Cobras finished the game with 4 players on the court after three players fouled out and there were only 7 total players available due to illness and injury. The guard was 24 of 47 from the field.

Spitzack was a thousand points scorer with over 500 rebounds and 200 assists in high school.

He was also an outstanding baseball player for the Cobras before going to St. Cloud State where he was named a Captain of the team twice.

Career statistics at St. Cloud State for Spitzack were impressive. 13-1 record, 2.93 ERA.  135 innings pitched, 123 hits allowed, 35 walks, 102 strikeouts, opponent batting average of .240,

Spitzack started 19 games, threw 2 complete games with 5 career saves.  He appeared in 45 games during his collegiate career.

The most impressive statistic in my opinion during his collegiate baseball career may be the fact he only allowed one sacrifice fly according to St. Cloud State statistics.

Interesting pieces of history.

Do you remember all of these?