Only four days after sweeping the Morris Area Tigers to earn a share of the WCC title, the Minnewaska Area baseball team was shut out by Morris Area, 2-0, in the opening round of the Section 3AA Baseball Tournament, Saturday at Paynesville High School.

Such is the life of a high school athlete, who experiences more highs and lows in a sports’ season than most people do in several years.

Minnewaska Area was seeded fourth and the Tigers were seeded fifth.  Everyone knew this was going to be a close game, especially after the Lakers had defeated the Tigers 5-1 and 4-2 only four days earlier at Minnewaska Area High School.

The Lakers were eliminated for the season, while the Tigers moved on to face top-seeded Paynesville in the next round and the Bulldogs handed the Tigers a 6-3 defeat to put Paynesville and Montevideo in the upper bracket semifinals to join Fairmont and Luverne from the south half of the section.

“Crazy how baseball works,” head coach Joe Alexander said.  “We were playing some very good baseball coming into the tournament, but we ran into a hot team and a great pitcher.

“I’m still proud of the great season the guys had and for winning the WCC baseball title; just a tough way to end the season.”

The Lakers finished the season with a 15-5 overall record this season, which included a 13-1 mark in the WCC to tie with Montevideo for the conference title.

Montevideo and Minnewaska were both 13-1 this season to share the 2023 WCC baseball title, while Morris Area and Melrose Area were both 8-6 to tie for third, followed by Sauk Centre (7-7), BOLD (5-9), and West Central Area and Benson (both 1-13).

The only senior lost to graduation from this year’s team is PJ Johnson, who happened to be the losing pitcher during the season-ending loss to the Tigers and also the only Laker player to register more than one hit (he went 2-for-3).

•  For some history, Minnewaska Area first played baseball in the WCC in 1992 and has now won or tied for the championship 10 times.  The Lakers and Melrose were tied with nine league titles each before Minnewaska Area earned the co-title this spring with Montevideo.

Overall, the Lakers have won WCC baseball titles in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2023.

Morris 2, Minnewaska 0

A pair of unearned runs was enough for the Tigers to end the Lakers season during the Section 3AA opener, Saturday morning at Paynesville.

Morris Area scored one unearned run in the first against Waska starting pitcher PJ Johnson and another in the seventh, while the Lakers were left scoreless for the first  time all season.

In fact, the Lakers had scored 131 runs through its first 19 games for an average of 6.9 runs per game.

Drew Huebner earned the win for the Tigers.  He allowed just four hits and two walks over 6 2/3 innings while striking out 17.  Yes, that’s right; 17 of the 21 outs for the Lakers were via strikeouts.

Drew Storck came in to get the final out for the Tigers.

PJ Johnson was 2-for-3 to lead the Laker offense, while Jack Majerus and Dylan Alexander also had hits for the Lakers, coached by Joe Alexander, Chris Lence, Jesse Johnson and Andy Goracke.

PJ Johnson fell to 5-2 on the mound with the loss.  He gave up just four hits and two walks, but was hurt by four Minnewaska Area errors leading to the two unearned runs.

Morris-CA 2, Waska 0

Morris 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 — 2 4 0

Waska (15-5) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 4 4

HITTING:  WASKA-PJ Johnson 2-for-3; Jack Majerus 1-for-3; Dylan Alexander 1-for-3 . . . MOR-four players with one hit each

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  WASKA-PJ Johnson (L, 5-2)  7-4-2-0-2-3 . . . MOR-Drew Huebner (W)  6 2/3-4-0-0-2-17; Drew Storck 1/3-0-0-0-0-0

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