State baseball roundup: Pine Island, Red Lake County win first state titles

Class 2A

Pine Island 2, Glencoe-Silver Lake 1

Tied in the bottom of the third inning Saturday at Target Field, Nicholas Thein battled back from a 1-2 count and drew a seemingly harmless two-out walk with the bases empty.

But then he stole second base. Shortly thereafter, Lucas Sems hit a grounder through the left side of the infield, scoring Thein from second for what was the game-winning run to power Pine Island to the program’s first state title.

Alexander Knox threw the first four innings for third-seeded Pine Island (23-5). He allowed just one run, getting out of a jam in the fourth inning in which Glencoe-Silver Lake (24-5) had a runner in scoring position.

Talan Bond took over on the bump in the fifth. He tossed a scoreless final three frames, including battling out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth.

Jackson Wischnack was brilliant in defeat for fourth-seeded Glencoe-Silver Lake, allowing just four hits and one earned run in six innings.

Class A

Red Lake County 15, New Ulm Cathedral 7

For the first time in program history, Red Lake County is a state baseball champion.

Kegan Schmitz went 3 for 4, scoring twice and batting in six runs to power an offensive explosion. Fifth-seeded Red Lake County (25-5) scored five runs in the opening frame, four in the second and two more each in the third and fourth innings.

Red Lake County’s top four batters in the order — Will Gieseke, Gunnar Halverson, Ben Gullingsrud and Schmitz — combined for nine hits and 11 runs scored. The Mustangs had to win three straight doe-or-die battles in the section tournament just to reach state, and never slowed down from there.

Elliot Schabert had four runs batted in for second-seeded New Ulm Cathedral (21-3).