Second-seeded and host Eagan defeated visiting seventh-seeded Park 12-2 in the opening round of the Section 3AAAA baseball tournament Monday afternoon.

In other first-round games, third-seeded Rosemount topped sixth-seeded Hastings 7-2, top-seeded Two Rivers beat eighth-seeded Burnsville 7-1 and fourth-seeded Apple Valley edged rival Eastview 7-6.

Two Rivers (18-3) hosts Apple Valley (9-12) and Rosemount (9-11) entertains Eagan (10-11) in the championship bracket.

Park (3-17) will play at Hastings (5-16) on Wednesday starting at 4:30 in an elimination game. The other elimination matchup is Burnsville (2-18) at Eastview (6-15). Those two winners will then meet on Monday, June 2, at Alimagnet Park in Burnsville, starting at 4:45 p.m.

Former Park coach Loshek helps team to College World Series

Longtime Park head softball coach Bob Loshek, now an assistant at Saint Mary’s University on Winona, will be doing his next coaching in the College World Series starting Thursday.
After losing in game one of the NCAA DIII Softball Super Regional at Saint Mary's University to UW-Whitewater Thursday, St, Mary's was a more loss away from the season being over.

Instead, the Cardinals (44-5) took two wins (4-0, and 7-1) over the Warhawks on the final day of the Super Regional to return to the College World Series for the first time since 2000. Saint Mary’s will open the eight-team, double elimination tournament Thursday in Bloomington, Illinois with a game against Linfield.