Stillwater Baseball Takes Third At State

The Stillwater Area baseball team bounced back from a state semifinal loss to Maple Grove and claimed the Class AAA third place trophy with a 3-2 win over Rochester Century on Friday at Midway Stadium in St. Paul.

The Ponies opened up the state tournament with a 9-0 win over Forest Lake in the quarterfinals, but fell on Friday to Maple Grove 4-1 and wound up in the third place game against the Panthers.

Stillwater (21-6) collected 15 hits in the game and picked up the win thanks to a game-winning single by Will Anderson, which scored Tom Forster in the fifth inning. The Ponies put up two runs in the fifth to take the 3-2 lead.

Pitcher Austin Booher made that lead hold up. Booher pitched all seven innings and allowed six hits and two runs—none earned—in the contest. He struck out 10 batters and walked three.

Pad Getchell went 3-for-4 in the game to continue his masterful work at the plate during the tournament. In three state games this year, he went 8-for-12 and batted. .667. He went 5-for-5 against Forest Lake and bounced back from an 0-for-3 day against Maple Grove to collect three hits in the third place game.

Darek Albertson finished 2-for-3, Forster went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Anderson finished 1-for-4 with an RBI. Booher went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

It is Stillwater’s first third-place finish at the state tournament. The Ponies won the state title in 1991 and took second in 2009. This season was Stillwater’s fourth straight trip to state.

Century (21-8) finished the state tournament with an 1-2 record. The Panthers scored two unearned runs in the game—one in the first and one in the third—and collected six hits. Pitcher John Meyer took the loss after giving up three runs on 15 hits. He struck out four.