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State tournament notebook

By Brian Stensaas, Star Tribune, 06/09/11, 10:24PM CDT

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Cool, rainy day is perfect weather for Park Center junior

NORTH MANKATO, Minn. – Thursday's weather was far from ideal at Caswell Park. Cloudy skies greeted fans for most of the day, along with a cool, stiff breeze. Purple bolts of lightning lit up the late evening sky, which put play to a halt for an hour and 40 minutes before being called for the night.

But for one player, the day was perfect. Well, part of it anyway.

Park Center
junior Nicola Tade threw the third perfect game in state tournament history. It came in the Pirates' 15-0 rout of Albany in the Class 2A quarterfinals.

Tade struck out 13 of the 15 batters she faced in the five-inning gem.

It was the third perfect game thrown in the state tournament. The last one had a Park Center connection, too, though it was on the other end of the excitement.

Park of Cottage Grove's Kristen Schmidt threw a perfect game against the Pirates in the 2000 state tournament, also a five-inning game.

Britt Hall of Hopkins threw the first perfect game in state tournament history, which dates to 1977, in 1993.

Eagles get chance for fourth-straight

New Life Academy's two-game path to a fourth consecutive appearance in the Class 1A championship couldn't have been more opposite.

The Eagles used a three-run third inning and a six-run fifth to dispose of previously undefeated Osakis 13-0 in five innings in the first round.

In the semifinals, New Life Academy ran into another undefeated team in Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg. In that one, the Eagles needed a late run to break a 2-2 tie then breathed easy as Rebekah Schmidt struck out five of the final six batters to earn her 22nd victory of the season.

"It was scary when they scored two. It was close," Schmidt said. "But, definitely, it shows who we are. We can win the tight games, too. Anything can happen."

The Eagles' quarterfinal victory was their 13th of the season by 10 or more runs, and fifth of the playoffs.

Dealing with the weather


The updated schedule is as follows:

Park Center led Pipestone 3-1 in the sixth inning of the Class 2A semifinals when the weather hit. Minnesota State High School League officials decided to declare that game official, meaning the Pirates will defend their state title against Hermantown at 1 p.m. on Friday in a rematch of last year's Class 2A championship.

In Class 1A, Cherry/Cotton leads Blooming Prairie 3-0 in the third inning of their semifinal tilt. That game will resume at 8 a.m. on Friday morning, as will the consolation semifinal games in Class 1A and 2A. That will likely push the consolation finals in those classes back at least an hour.

The rest of the day, weather permitting, will continue as scheduled.

State Tournament News