Minnesota high school baseball state tournament: Rosemount's big sixth inning drops Edina

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — It was a Rosemount offensive explosion years in the making.

Edina pitcher Luke Vitt didn't allow a hit through 5.2 innings, and he entered the sixth inning with a one-hit shutout.

The Irish have 18 seniors on the team. Many of them circled together in the dugout before the sixth inning.

"We circled up before that big inning and said, 'Just trust your stuff and trust your approach,'" senior pitcher Carter Theison said. "It just comes down to the leadership of this team."

The No. 1-seed Irish finished the sixth inning with 10 runs, five hits, five walks and two Edina errors. The inning propelled them to a 12-2 win over No. 4-seed Edina Hornets in the Class 4A semifinals at CHS Field.

"We rely on our guys, and we know how to pick up pressure well, and I think that translated today," senior Chance Swansson said.

Carson Blume and June Moeller drew walks to start the sixth inning. They advanced one base on a wild pitch. Jack Thompson drew a walk to load the bases.

Theison hit a ground ball to Edina shortstop Jackson Nevers, who shoveled it to second baseman Lewis Meyer for a double play, but after he tagged second base, his throw to first went past the first baseman, which allowed Blume and Moeller to score.

Rosemount had tied the game at two with one out and a runner on first.

Edina pulled Vitt for junior Charlie Moore, but Moore failed to record an out. The Irish got five hits in a row, all of them for RBIs. The Hornets pulled Moore for freshman Chase Bjorgaard. He allowed one more RBI on a sacrifice fly, but he got the Hornets out of the nightmare inning.

"There was a lot of vocalization in the dugout," Swansson said. "We do a good job relaying information among ourselves."

The Hornets held a 2-0 lead entering the sixth inning with RBIs from Danny Geyer and Michael Simonson.

The Irish added two more runs in the seventh inning with an RBI double from Blume.

Theison finished with seven innings pitched, allowing five hits, one earned run, six strikeouts and one walk.

The Irish will play No. 2-seed Eat Ridge in the Class 4A title game on Friday, June 16 at 7:30 p.m. at CHS Field.

"We've had success growing up, so to translate that to the high school level is pretty sweet," Swansson said.