It’s been a pretty hectic year and to see them persevere the way they are – we’ve had a lot of bumps in the road, and we’ll see where this leads to.”

Park assistant coach Tony Young

When Eastview’s Emily Braaten powered a grand-slam homer over the fence in the third inning to give Eastview an early 5-1 lead Thursday, things didn’t look good for the Park Wolfpack.
It looked worse when Eastview took a 6-1 lead in the fourth.
But by the time the dust had settled, Park stormed off with a wild and dramatic 7-6 triumph over the visiting Lightning to remain alive in the section championship bracket. Park scored three runs in the fifth inning to move within striking distance at 6-4, tied the game with two runs in the sixth, then won the game with one more run in the seventh.
Park’s Grace Conaway got the winning run on with a one-out single in the seventh and then came home to score two batters later when Bri Lee reached on an Eastview error and a ball Ava Youngquist put in play.
“I feel great, that was a good team win,” said Youngquist. “We were stuck down five at one point and I feel like we never gave up and we have to want to win. We wanted to win more than they did, and I think we did a good job. I was just myself. I need to put the ball on the ground because it doesn’t matter. I just needed to do it to help my team and that was to put the ball on the ground.”
The win set up a big-time showdown game between Park (15-6) and No. 2 Rosemount (19-3) Tuesday in the championship bracket at M-Health Fairview Sports Complex in Woodbury, starting at 3:30 p.m.
Asked how they managed to keep their heads in the game down by five heading into the late innings, centerfielder Lauren Osland said, “Play good defense, put one person on the bases at a time and just keeping pushing them through. Amazing. It feels so good. (It was) a really good team win. I think it’s going to help us in the next few games.”
In the other championship bracket second-round game Thursday, top-seeded Rosemount blanked fifth-seeded East Ridge 10-0.
“One at a time, base-to-base, station-to-station,” Park assistant coach Tony Young said he told the team when they were down five runs midway through the game. “We’ve just got to keep hitting. We need runners on and that’s what happened. For some reason they just like giving me a heart attack.
“It’s been a pretty hectic year and to see them persevere the way they are – we’ve had a lot of bumps in the road, and we’ll see where this leads to,” Young continued.
Park 6, Eagan 2
Park jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead after the first inning and never looked back to down visiting Eagan 6-2 in a Class 4A, Section 3 first round Wednesday at Cottage Grove.
Senior third baseman Grace Conaway doubled with the bases loaded, while Addie Corkish, Stella Fritsche, Bri Lee and Ava Youngquist all singled as the Wolfpack opened the game with a first-inning offensive explosion.
That was more than offense enough for the Park defense and pitcher Stella Fritsche who allowed just one run and four hits to the Wildcats.
In other first-round games, third-seeded Eastview dropped sixth-seeded Two Rivers 6-1, top-seeded Rosemount topped eighth-seeded Burnsville 7-1 and fifth-seeded East Ridge got past Hastings 5-2.