Red Lake County Returns to State Championship Game, Edges South Ridge 4-3 in Semifinal Thriller
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (KVRR) — One win away from a second straight state championship.
Defending Class A champion Red Lake County is headed back to the Minnesota State Baseball Championship Game after defeating South Ridge 4-3 in the semifinals Friday.
The second-seeded Rebels entered the game at 26-2 overall and faced a difficult challenge against the third-seeded Panthers. The winner would earn a trip to Target Field for Monday’s state title game.
“Every kid’s dream is to play at Target Field,” said Red Lake County sophomore pitcher Ben Gullingsrud. “You get to play where Joe Mauer played and all of them guys. It’s the best feeling in the world to go there and get to be on a field of that caliber.”
Red Lake County struck first in the opening inning when Gunnar Halverson put the ball in play and manufactured a run for a 1-0 lead.
South Ridge answered in the second inning with a sacrifice fly before executing a perfectly placed suicide squeeze bunt to take a 2-1 advantage.
The Rebels responded with some small-ball of their own in the third. Riley Broden laid down a sacrifice bunt that brought home the tying run, evening the game at 2-2. A bases-loaded walk later in the inning gave Red Lake County a 3-2 lead.
“I think we were in the nine, maybe even 10 strikeout range for us on offense, and that’s way too high when you’re struggling just for contact,” head coach Mike Gullingsrud said. “You try to do some things just to make something happen. Thankfully it worked out a couple times.”
The Panthers tied the game again in the fifth inning after a bunt attempt led to a rundown, but a mishandled ball allowed the tying run to score.
With the game deadlocked at three, Red Lake County found the decisive run in the bottom of the sixth. Senior shortstop Will Gieseke delivered a contact play that allowed Dawson Erickson to score what proved to be the game-winning run.
“Will Gieseke with a contact play to give Dawson Erickson a very close play at home,” Mike Gullingsrud said. “The go-ahead run, which turned out to be the game-winning run. You’re just fighting and scratching just to make opportunities the best you can. [The] Guys, overall… we had enough today.”
Gieseke finished 1-for-2 with an RBI and scored two runs in the victory.
On the mound, Ben Gullingsrud was dominant. The sophomore tossed a complete game, allowing just three hits and no earned runs while striking out five over seven innings.
“That was unbelievable,” Gullingsrud said on heading to the State Title game. “Last year when it happened in Alexandria… it was pretty much the same thing. Just super excited. Got to celebrate with my teammates after.”
The victory also served as a measure of revenge for the Rebels. One of their two regular-season losses came against South Ridge, a 7-2 defeat earlier this spring.
“My dad got on the bus this morning and he was like, ‘This is a revenge game,'” Ben Gullingsrud said. “We are not going in there quiet. This is a revenge game for sure. So it brought the energy. The dugout was amazing today and everybody on the field was excited to get out there.”
Mike Gullingsrud echoed that sentiment.
“We really had one rotten inning that was a deciding factor in that game,” he said. “Thankfully, if you think of the word as a little bit of revenge, we maybe didn’t get the first word, but it was nice to get the last word in a very important game.”
The Rebels now have a chance to make history. Red Lake County will attempt to become the first Class A program to win back-to-back state championships since New Life Academy-Woodbury accomplished the feat in 2014 and 2015.
“My pregame discussion with the boys, I told them that last night I didn’t sleep well,” Mike Gullingsrud said. “I looked back through the high school league history to see how many Class A teams have been back-to-back champions. I think in 79 years there have been seven Class A teams or single-class teams that have done it. For us to have the opportunity, that says a lot about the group of kids they are, the winners they have proven to be, and the opportunities they’ve gained and earned along the way.”
Red Lake County will face top-seeded Madelia in the Class A State Championship Game at 10 a.m. Monday, June 15 at Target Field.
KVRR will have highlights and postgame reaction from the title game.
