Totino-Grace Class 3A MSHSL Baseball Champions

Totino-Grace allowed just one run in three Class 3A State Tournament games to win their first baseball title today with a 2-1 victory over Mahtomedi at Target Field in Minneapolis.

Tommy Heifort, Junior, was efficient on the hill for the Eagles throwing 56 pitches over the 1:51 game.  Heifort struck out 8, walked 1 batter, allowed 4 hits in the title game and was the winning pitcher in the tournament opener last Thursday at Chaska Athletic Field in St. Paul in their 4-0 defeat of Little Falls.

Heifort's totals for the tournament were 14 innings pitched, 11 hits allowed, 1 run that was earned, 14 strikeouts, 3 walks, 49 batters faced, 163 pitches.

Zephyrs pitcher Ethan Felling, Junior, kept Mahtomedi in the game with 4 hits allowed in 6 innings, 2 runs allowed, 1 earned, 9 strikeouts, 2 walks, 2 wild pitches, 1 hit batter while throwing 95 pitches to 26 batters.

Andrew Sokoll, Junior, threw the last inning for Mahtomedi with an intentional walk and hit batter.  He threw 15 pitches.

Noah Hill, Senior, knocked in both runs for the Eagles of Totino-Grace and had half their hits in the game.

The Eagles tallied 14 total hits in the tournament with 8 runs scored and had no errors in their three games.

Jake Rantz, Junior, pitched the semifinals 2-0 shutout over top seeded Benilde-St. Margaret's allowing 3 hits with 2 strikeouts, 1 walk, 76 total pitches.

Mahtomedi was the #3 seed, Totino-Grace #4 seed in the tournament,  In the final MHSBCA rankings the Zephyrs were #3 and Eagles were not ranked.

Benilde-St. Margaret's was the top rated team.

Mahtomedi opened the tournament with a 7-1 win over #9 rated and unseeded Northfield, then got by #6 ranked Grand Rapids 5-3.

Totino-Grace opened with a 4-0 win over unranked #5 seed Little Falls before blanking top ranked and top seeded Benilde-St. Margaret's 4-0.

Grand Rapids Thunderhawks upended the Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights 5-1 in third place game.

Mankato East Cougars defeated fellow Big Nine Conference member Northfield Raiders 4-3 in 8 innings before doubling up St. Thomas Academy 8-4 for the Consolation Championship.

Raiders ended their season with a 15-11 record, Mankato East was #2 seed and #4  ranked team finishing 22-6.

Mahtomedi was participating in their 4th straight state tournament.  Last year they were second to New Prague.  In 2021 were state champs.

The final Class 3A MHSBCA poll had Mankato West ranked #2 and Big Nine schools Winona and Austin at #18 and #23 respectively.

Grand Rapids made their 22nd trip to state in baseball and also were making their 4th consecutive appearance at state.