Maple Grove Baseball Advances To State Final

The baseball team will be making its first-ever appearance at Target Field Tuesday, June 21 as the Crimson downed Stillwater, 4-1, in its state tournament semifinal matchup at Midway Stadium on Friday afternoon to advance to the Class AAA championship game.

"It feels awesome, I can't explain it," Maple Grove starting pitcher Jacob Schwager said. "I'm so happy."

Schwager kept a Stillwater team that had won its state quarterfinal 9-0 at bay, tossing a complete-game two-hitter to punch the Crimson's ticket for the title round.

"Jake was outstanding today," Maple Grove head coach Darby Carlson said. 

The junior hurler needed just 77 pitches over seven innings to improve to 10-0 on the season, allowing one unearned run and walking two with one strikeout.

The Crimson never trailed in the game as Roman Collins celebrated his birthday by driving in Logan Hershey with the team's first run of the game on a double in the top of the first inning.

Maple Grove upped its lead to 3-0 in the third inning on a single by Joe Franta, a Stillwater error, a walk and two Ponies wild pitches that plated the sophomore and Collins.

The Ponies scored their lone run on a Schwager wild pitch in the home half of the third before all-but shutting the door on his opponent by allowing Stillwater just one baserunner in the entire game after that.

Peter Monsrud tallied what would be the final tally of the contest, scoring from third base on a Ponies error in the top of the seventh to bring the count to its would-be final of 4-1 before Schwager downed the Ponies 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame to clinch the victory for Maple Grove.

The Crimson, now 26-1 on the season, will look to clinch its first-ever state baseball championship when they take on Burnsville (23-3) in the Class AAA title game at 6 p.m. Tuesday night in downtown Minneapolis.

"We've had a great year so far," Carlson said. "We'd like to see that continue against a tough opponent on Tuesday."