NORTH MANKATO — New York Mills made its fifth consecutive state tournament appearance its best, pulling away to defeat No. 1-seed and defending champion Edgerton/Southwest Christian 8-4 for the Class 1A title.

The balanced Eagles got at least one base hit from all but one of their starters — 11 hits in all — and closed out a tournament in which they averaged just over eight runs per game.

“This is our fifth year in a row and one thing we did different was we focused more on ourselves,” coach Bryan Dunrud said. “As much as we wanted to stay and watch the other teams, we went back to the hotel and got good meals and good rest between games. We took that down time and used it to our advantage as best we could.”

Kenna Salo, Annika Frost and Sierra Gerber each had two hits for New York Mills (25-2), which separated itself from Edgerton with a four-run fourth inning followed by a three-run fifth.

“We had good at-bats all game,” Dunrud said. “Throughout the tournament, if there was one thing that was consistent, we did a nice job of battling, put good swings on the ball and when we got runners in base, we scored them.”

JIM PAULSEN