Pine Island Baseball Receives Tough Draw at State

The Pine Island Panthers' first opponent at the Class AA State Baseball Tournament in St. Cloud will be top ranked and top seed Belle Plaine.

The Minnesota River Conference Champions' only loss this season was to conference foe Sibley East on April 25. Since then they have reeled off 15 straight wins.

Tri-City United head coach Bruce Davis has been telling KDHL on the TCU Coaches Show each Saturday the Tigers are the real deal with depth at pitching, an outstanding catcher and very athletic team.

Pine Island head coach Craig Anderson hopes his pitching staff can continue to shine as they have throughout their playoff run.

The Panthers' last regular season game was a 12-10 loss to state-ranked St. Charles.

The Saints were a team many thought had a chance to win it all but were defeated in the first round by No. 8 seed Fillmore Central in the Section 1AA East Subsection.

Pine Island didn't lose a playoff game and have reeled off five straight wins, allowing just seven runs in four games.

In addition to some stellar pitching, the Panthers have made some impressive defensive plays.

Senior shortstop Matt Lien can cover a lot of territory and seems to do it effortlessly. He's also unbeaten on the mound and Pine Island's pitching is pretty good with four players with earned run averages under 2.00.

Anderson knew his team wouldn't get a top five seed in the tournament due to their seven losses but notes many of those losses came when Lien was out with an injury.

Pine Island plays Belle Plaine at Dick Putz Field in St. Cloud at 10AM Thursday and I'll have the call on KDHL Radio, 920 AM, also www.kdhlradio.com or you can listen on your favorite mobile device just by downloading the free RadioPup app.

At 12:30PM Thursday the No. 4 seed Maple Lake Irish (22-6) faces the No. 5 seed and No. 20 ranked Proctor Rails (18-5).

At 3PM, No. 2 seed and No. 5 ranked Minnehaha Academy RedHawks (24-3) go up against the Green Wave of East Grand Forks (15-8).

The quarterfinals conclude at 5:30PM with No. 8 rated and No. 3 seed Pierz Pioneers (21-4) playing the Paynesville Area Bulldogs (17-8).

The Pioneers had to defeat perennial Class AA powerhouse St. Cloud Cathedral twice to get to state and Minnehaha Academy knocked off perennial Class A power New Life Academy with two wins in their section final.

If Pine Island wins Thursday they would play at noon Friday and if they don't win they come back at 10AM Friday in the consolation bracket.

The State Class AA title game is 1PM Monday at Target Field in Minneapolis.

In the final coaches poll Pine Island received votes but did not crack the top 20 despite defeating No. 6 Cannon Falls during the playoffs and defeating Rochester Lourdes when they were a top five rated team.