Blaze Roll On In Baseball Playoffs

Early on, it looked as though the Burnsville baseball team could be headed towards its first postseason defeat as it trailed Eagan in the early innings of its Section 3AAA "Final Four" round matchup on Friday night at Alimagnet Field. 

However, aided by some clutch hitting and an overwhelming number of Wildcat errors, the Blaze rallied from an early 2-0 deficit to defeat Eagan 11-4 and advance to the winner's bracket final on Saturday morning.

A pair of singles and a two-out double off Burnsville starting pitcher Adam Lambrecht in the bottom of the first inning put the Blaze down 2-0; however, the section's top seed rallied to knot the count at 2-2 in the top of the fourth on RBI singles by Matt Stemper and Tyler Hanson.

After both teams saw chances to take the lead come and go in the fourth and fifth innings, Burnsville seized control of the game with a five-run sixth inning fueled by a succession of Eagan miscues and another Hanson two-RBI single.

The Wildcats scored a run of their own in the bottom of the sixth, yet again proved to be fallible in the field with another series of errors that allowed the Blaze to tack on four more runs—with one last RBI single from Hanson as well.

Eagan nibbled away with three singles in the bottom of the seventh to score one last run off Burnsville reliever Bo Hellquist, but the mini-rally was not nearly enough to topple the Blaze, who won with seven runs to spare.

Burnsville will take on St. Thomas in the final battle of sectional undefeateds at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, back at Alimagnet, with the winner advancing to the 3AAA final on Tuesday.

The Blaze/Cadets loser will immediately play an elimination game against either Eagan or Eastview in the one-loss bracket final, with the winner of that game to advance to the sectional championship round.