MATT KANE
Sports Editor

After upsetting the top seed in the tournament on the first night of the Region 12C tournament, Loretto never found that second win that his necessary to earn a spot in the Class C state tournament.

Loretto was the final team to qualify for the region tournament, which was held at Veterans Memorial Field in Hutchinson.

After the Larks surprised everybody with a 5-3 10-inning win over top-seeded Delano July 31, they fell 11-1 to Cokato in eight innings Aug. 3. In a win-or-go-home situation for both teams Aug. 8, it was Maple Lake that won the game and the trip to state and Loretto that lost and saw its season come to an end.

Maple Lake controlled the entire game, and punished the Larks 17-1 in seven innings.

The Lakers finished with 21 hits.

The Larks finished with nine hits, and committed five fielding errors.

Maple Lake jumped on the Larks and starting pitcher Donny Schroeder for five runs in the bottom of the first inning and for four more in the second.

Only three of the nine runs scored against Schroeder were earned.

Jacob Mathiason came on for Loretto in the fourth inning, but didn’t fare much better. He was touched up for seven earned runs on 11 hits.

Veteran side-armer Mark Ricke finished the finagling inning-and-one-third innings for the Larks. He gave up one unearned run on two hits. Ricke struck out two.

N. Preisinger was the winning pitcher for Maple Lake after working five innings.

Preisinger struck out six, and gave up six hits and one walk. The only run he surrendered came in the fifth inning.

Riley Decker pitched a scoreless two innings in relief of Preisinger.

At the plate, Decker hat two hits and drove in three runs.

Decker was one of eight Laker batters to have two-or-more hits.

Matt Bergstrom, DMavencamp and BGoelz all had three hits.

Bergstrom and Goelz both drove in two runs.

Williams Reuschenberg drove in Loretto’s only run. He singled home Kent Koch with one out in the fifth.

Loretto finished the season with a 12-16 record

With the win, Maple Lake gained one of the region’s four state berths. The Lakers went on to earn the fourth seed from the region. They open state against Perham Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in Maple Lake.

Hutchinson earned the top seed from the region. The Huskies are off this weekend. They willl play the winner of Marble and New Munich Friday, Aug. 23, at 7:30 p.m. at Maple Lake.

Cokato surprised many by earning their first trip to state. The Kernels are going as Region 12C’s No. 2 seed. They play Sleepy Eye Saturday at 11 a.m. in Delano.

Howard Lake is the No. 3 seed from the region. The Orphans open state tournament play at Maple Lake Friday night at 7:30 p.m. against New London-Spicer.

The Minnesota Town Team State Baseball Tournament brackets came out tonight and Twitter is exploding!:) Town Team baseball is an interesting phenomenon with players as young as 16 and as old as 50+ competing for small towns throughout the state! How about the Buckman Billygoats versus the Hadley Buttermakers…a matchup in last year’s tourney of towns you may never heard of, with interesting nicknames, playing surprisingly good baseball!

There are always unique story lines each year! For example, last year a “young” Young America player was sprinting home with the potential winning run getting so excited he leaped right over home plate into his teammates’ celebratory arms…only to be called out for not touching home plate! Fortunately for this “young” player, Young America recovered and won the game in extra innings!

Or how about Hutchinson’s Matt Timm throwing the first perfect game ever in state tourney history and it came in the final game he ever pitched before retiring! What a way to go out! This year’s big story could be the Cologne Hollanders earning their first state tourney appearance in 47 years or Hutchinson’s Kyle Messner defying Father Time and winning another game on the mound while being a spry 52 years old! So get out and watch some baseball in some of the best town team ballparks in the state!

Here’s a link to the  Class C tourney brackets:

https://scoremonsterclients.s3.amazonaws.com/2/pdf/statetourneys/2019/2019+State+Tournament+Bracket+-+Class+C+-+Class+C+(1).pdf.

Here’s a link to the  Class B tourney brackets:

https://scoremonsterclients.s3.amazonaws.com/2/pdf/statetourneys/2019/2019+State+Tournament+Bracket+-+Class+B+-+Class+B+(2).pdf

The opening game at Delano Municipal Baseball Park will feature the St. Patrick Irish versus the Cold Spring Rockies at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, August 15th! The State Tourney is scheduled for the weekends of August 15th-17th; August 22nd-24th; and August 29th-September 2nd.

If you’re able to help out at the tourney, it would be much appreciated!  It takes lots of volunteers to run this ten day event that brings people and money into the Delano community. Last year, this tournament drew over 17,000 in paid attendance and well over 20,000 including players, volunteers, honorees, league officials, etc. Please note that 100% of revenue earned goes right back into Delano parks!

Please follow the link below to sign up for various volunteer opportunities. Or call or e-mail if you prefer talking to a human instead of dealing with technology!:) Please note that there are volunteer opportunities for almost all ages!!

Here’s the direct volunteer sign up  link along with a few notes: 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050a4baba72bab9-ticket

• Please see the tabs at the top of the Signup Genius link for numerous other volunteer opportunities.

• If you have any difficulties signing up or have questions regarding volunteer job descriptions, etc., please contact Cheryl Schleper at cheryl.schleper@gmail.com or at 612-819-4611.

Note: A couple of volunteer opportunities are being handled independently from Signup Genius. If you want to volunteer to be a team host, please contact Steve Eilen at 612-710-8865. If you want to volunteer to be a scoreboard operator, please contact Ryan Hayes at 612-221-6084.

Also, here’s a State Tourney website link that will be continually updated: https://www.2019baseballmn.com/

Friday Aug 16 in Maple Lake at 7:30
New London-Spicer vs Howard Lake

Saturday Aug 17 in Delano at 11:00
Sleepy Eye vs Cokato

Saturday Aug 17 in Maple Lake at 4:30
Perham vs Maple Lake 

Friday Aug 23 in Maple Lake at 7:30
Marble/New Munich winner vs Hutchinson

State Qualifiers & Draftees:
12A Hutchinson
Hunter Hart
Judson McKown
Toby Hanson

12B Cokato
Tyler Wolfe
Jordan Flick
Ben Lindquist

12C Howard Lake
Matt Arens
Jon Euerle
Joey Hyde

12D Maple Lake
Jeremy Maschino
Colton Petron
Tyler Zweibohmer