Rockets Win State Championship, Make School History

Hoisting a state championship trophy had special significance for members of the Randolph girls fast pitch softball team Wednesday afternoon in North Mankato. It is the first Minnesota State High School League team championship in school history. The Rockets (27-0) capped a perfect season with an 11-1, six-inning victory over Browerville/Eagle Valley in a battle of unbeaten teams.

Randolph opened the Class A tournament with a 10-0, five-inning win over Sebeka on Tuesday. They followed up that by knocking out the champs from 2019, Edgerton/Southwest Minnesota Christian, who had beaten the Rockets in the semifinals two years ago.

Coach Dennis Trom said that semifinal win was quite gratifying. The team celebrated pretty hard after the late Tuesday night 5-0 win over the Dutchmen. Rockets pitcher Morgyn Otte struck out a staggering 18 batters in the semifinal win. She had fanned 12 in the quarterfinal win and threw consecutive one-hitters Tuesday.

In the title tilt at Caswell Park on Wednesday, Browerville put their first two runners aboard in the bottom of the first inning. Otte retired the next eight batters, five by strikeout. She had ten more of those, giving her 40 for the tournament.

The teams traded runs in the fourth inning, before Randolph exploded for a nine-run fifth frame. Freshman Carly Kimmes had an RBI-double and two-run single in the inning. Senior Megan Erickson, senior Morgyn Otte, senior Meredith Taylor, and senior Chloe Kimmes all drove in runs. Senior Imogen Otte had two bunt singles in the fifth.

Erickson had hit a two-run walk-off homerun in the quarterfinal game over Sebeka that established the ten-run lead in the fifth inning. Great base-running was a component in the 5-0 win over Edergton in the semifinals. Trom said the team improved quite a bit from the start of the season in their base running by putting a strong focus on it during practice.

LeSueur-Henderson won the Class AA title 7-4 over St. Charles. Becker captured the AAA title 4-0 over Winona, scoring three in the top of the seventh for some breathing room. Rosemount was crowned AAAA champs with a 5-1 victory over Forest Lake.

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