John Molene

It’s on to state for the never- say-die Park Wolfpack, Left for dead following a 15-0 loss to Eagan in the Section 3AAAA semifinals, Park came all the way back to earn its first trip to the state baseball tournament since 1993.

That’s 28 years for those counting at home.

Park shocked the Eagan Wildcats twice on Wednesday at Burnsville’s Alimagnet Park, winning 5-0 and then 9-3 in the section final to advance.

“I’m so excited for our players,” said Park coach John McGowan, who has directed this Park team to 20 wins, the most in his 10 years as head coach. “Oh my gosh, it’s phenomenal. Our success this year has been because guys just step up and do their job. It’s been a great team effort.”

Park (20-7) qualifies for the eight-team Class AAAA state baseball tournament quarterfinals. The first game will be played Tuesday, June 15 at Chaska Athletic Park. The semifinals are also at Chaska Wednesday, June 16. The state finals will be played Friday, June 18, at Target Field.

Park knocked off sixth-seeded Hastings, fifth-seeded Eastview, sixthranked and top-seeded Rosemount (16-8) and fourthranked second-seeded Eagan (17-8) – twice – to advance.

The Wolfpack made three appearances at the state baseball tournament in 1987, 1991 and 1993 but haven’t been back since. This year’s section title has been the culmination of Park getting better each of the last few seasons.

“We’ve had some really good teams that competed here,” said McGowan. “In sections our team two years ago we went top three and knocked off teams. I think our teams in the past have kind of built up our guys. A couple of our guys were on the team two years ago as sophomores and they saw the success they had and what it takes to compete in sections and I think that helps us now.”

With ace Tucker Novotny unable to pitch Wednesday because of pitch-court rules, some wondered if the Wolfpack had enough pitching to hold down a high0-scoring Eagan team. Junior Sam Janski and senior Conor Mestemacher proved the answer to that question was an emphatic yes. After Mestermacher pitched the Wolfpack to a win in game one Wednesday, Janski both pitched and hit the Wolfpack to the state-clinching victory. Janski went 6 2.3 innings, allowing six hits, three earned runs, striking out five while walking two.

“We were definitely taken aback by here of our main pitchers going down for pitch count, but me and Conor we battled and we fought hard,” said Janski. “It feels so amazing.”

“We had two guys left and they each went one game. The whole game and that’s all we needed I guess,” said Novotny. “Our bats just came alive, we knew we were going to hit. We didn’t think our pitchers were goby

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ing to do that well, they did freaking amazing today. We knew we were going to have to hit, we did anyways, pitching did well defense as well. Great day.”

Wednesday’s final was a scoreless duel until the fifth when Eagan scored one run, but Park countered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Park then removed any doubt by pushing across a whopping seven runs in the bottom of the sixth.

Park’s hitters pounded Eagan pitching all day. Janski helped his own cause by going 3-for-4, connecting on a pair of doubles and knocking in four runs. Fellow pitcher Jackson Tessman also doubled. Ben Johnson was 2-for-2 with two RBIs. Tucker Novotny was 2-for-2, Micah Runion and Clayton Beaurline drove in runs. In all, the Wolfpack had 10 hits and nine RBIs.

The victory was sweet revenge for the Wolfpack against the Eagan Wildcats. The Wildcats had earlier sent Park into the elimination round with a 15-0 victory June 2 that would have sank a lesser team.

Park’s pitching and defense shut down a high-powered Eagan’s offense in the final two games. Coming into to Wednesday’s game the Wildcats had scored eight, 15 and nine runs in four section tournament games.

In the first game Wednesday, Park pitcher Conor Mestermacher twirled a two-hit shutout to lead the Wolfpack to a 5-0 victory. Mestemacher struck out three while walking just one. It was a game of triumph for Mestemacher, who was the losing pitcher in Eagan’s earlier playoff win.

Jackson Weidner rocked a solo home run, Sam Janski doubled, while Ben Johnson and Jackson Tessman had RBIs. Park just nibbled the Wildcats to death in the game, scoring single runs in the second, fourth and sixth to go along with two more in the fifth.

“The first practice of the season, Coach McGowan came over and we were all staying late to hit,” said Park’s Josh Hatano. “Coach McGowan goes aren’t you guys hungry, let’s go home. And Tuck goes, we’re hungry for a state championship. And now we are.”

Park 9, Rosemount 8 For six and a half innings this game was a laughter, Park could do little wrong and Rosemount little right. The switch flipped dramatically in a wild sixth inning.

Park was cruising along with a very comfortable 9-1 lead against top-seeded Rosemount going into the bottom of the sixth inning when all of a sudden things got very funky.

All of a sudden, Park’s usually solid defense couldn’t field the ball either in the infield or the outfield and the Rosemount Irish hitters started finding holes that hadn’t been there before. Rosemount scored seven runs on just two hits and two walks, but Park committed a kind of astounding six errors in the inning.

“I just lost a lot of control, left the guy who came in, Clayton, with a really tough spot and then things just didn’t bounce our way, a little dribbler hit and then in the holes, everything was just not going our way, but we ended up with the win and that’s all that mattters,” said Park’s normally sure-handed Joshua Hatano, who had two errors in the inning.

When the dust had cleared, Rosemount had closed to within 9-8 in a section elimination baseball game played at Burnsville’s Alimagnet Park and make Park players, coaches and fans very nervous.

Fortunately for the Wolfpack they were able to close out the win by shutting out the Irish in the seventh inning and advance in the Section 4AAA baseball playoffs.

“Give them credit for putting a lot of balls in play,” said coach McGowan. “We made a few errors, too, that didn’t help us.”

The seventh inning was mostly uneventful. Park went down fairly quietly in the top of the seventh.

Clayton Beaurline had come in to relieve a tiring starter Tucker Novotny with one out in the sixth. Beaurline and the Wolfpack struggled mightily to get out of the sixth inning, but came through like champions in the seventh.

Beaurline got the first batter to fly out to left, then struck out the next two Rosemount batters to end the game.

Park hitters generally featured on Rosemount pitching. Jack Weidner was 2-for-2 with a home run and a double and drove in three runs, Josh Hatano went 2-for-5 with a home run and had two RBIs for the Wolfpack. Sam Janski was 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Novotny was 1-for-4 with two runs batted in.

Novotny pitched 5 and 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits, five runs, three earned runs, striking out 10 and walking three.

Park (20-7) drew the No. 2 seed in the state baseball tournament and will open against Rogers (18-7) Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Chaska Athletic Park.

Other quarterfinal games Tuesday are: No. 1 Stillwater (20-4) vs. Minnetonka (1510), 10 a.m., No. 5 Farmington (18-6) vs. No. 4 Mounds View (17-7), 12:30 p.m., and Hopkins (16-8) vs. No. 3 Andover (21-4), 5:30 p.m.

The semifinals are Wednesday at noon and 2:30 p.m. at Chaska. Finals are Friday at 7 p.m. at Target Field.

Junior Sam Janski gave a clutch pitching performance in the section finals to help Park gain the state tournament. Photoby John Molene.

The Wolfpack are all smiles as they await their section championship trophy and medals. Photo by John Molene.