Northfield Defeats Moundsview, Advances in State Baseball

Northfield Raiders head coach Peter Maus told KDHL after their 3-2 win over two-time defending state AAA champion Moundsview that defense can win you a lot of games.

The Raiders flashed some leather in their win over the top-ranked and top-seeded Mustangs. With a runner at third in the first inning and one out, a ball was smacked to shortstop Tommy McDonald and he immediately came home to get the runner. Later McDonald would record the final out of the inning with a fantastic over-the-shoulder catch in shallow left field. That set the tone for the rest of the game. Maus has said all season on the Northfield Coaches Show on KDHL that senior center fielder Joey Eckhoff is the best center fielder in Minnesota not playing at Target Field, and he made a flat-out diving catch to start the second inning that was amazing and followed it up with another robbery of a hit chasing down a ball in right center field.

Sophomore pitcher Hunter Koepp was his usual steady self, not overpowering but very effective, scattering six hits in his six and a third innings of work. Senior Colin Shepley hammered down the save in the bottom of the seventh and the Raiders were in the semis of the state tournament.

Northfield got just enough offense off senior lefty Henry Decaster. The Raiders connected for seven hits, scoring two runs in a three-hit fourth inning that was aided by a Mustang error. Senior Thomas Meland led off the inning with a triple in the right center field gap and scored on a single from junior Caleb Malek. Cleanup hitter Sam Stuckmeyer laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Malek to second base. Quinten McGregor then singled sharply to left and Malek was held up at third after the left fielder did a nice job getting the ball into the infield quickly. Junior Chris Antoine hit a grounder to second and an error allowed Malek to score.

The Raiders added what proved to be their winning run in the next inning. No. 9 hitter, senior Joey Eckhoff, walked and was sacrificed to second on a bunt by senior Tommy McDonald, then Meland smacked a double off the scoreboard in right field and Eckhoff crossed home plate.

Moundsview mounted a rally in the final inning after their first man up popped out, No. 9 hitter Joe Janey was walked and lead-off hitter Tyler Fredlund then collected his fourth hit of the day, a triple to score Janey. Fredlund got his triple on a two strike-out. That meant the tying run was coming to the plate. Maus went to the mound and lifted Koepp (115 pitches, 69 strikes, three strike-outs, three walks). Senior Colin Shepley got the next man to pop out. No. 3 hitter Alec Ambercrombie slapped a single to center to score Fredlund and put the go-ahead run at first base with two outs. Shepley got cleanup hitter Charlie Callahan (.470 hitter) to hit a grounder to short, McDonald flipped the ball to Meland at second and the Raiders were victorious.

The 21-4 Raiders will face 18-7 Lakeville North in the semis 10AM Saturday at CHS Field in St. Paul. KDHL Radio and kdhlradio.com coverage will begin at 9:45AM. The Panthers blanked Anoka 3-0 with No. 9 hitter Kyle Rhodus leading the way. Rhodus scored two runs after singling and clubbing a double to get on base. He also made a terrific throw on the fly to home plate from right field to gun down a runner at the plate in the fourth inning. The Panthers' other score came in the sixth after Brett Herber led off the inning with a triple; he scored on a sacrifice fly by Mitch Frederick.

On the other side of the AAA bracket, No. 2 seed Chanhassen outlasted St. Michael-Albertville 1-0 in nine innings, and Robbinsdale Armstrong edged No. 3 seed Mahtomedi 2-1.

The Northfield/Lakeville North winner plays the Chanhassen/Robbinsdale Armstrong winner for the state title at Target Field on Monday night at 6PM. The teams that don't win will play for third place Saturday afternoon at 3. If Northfield is in that game, it will be on Power 96 Radio 95.9 FM and power96radio.com.