Maple Lake, regular season co-champions of the Central Minnesota Conference, finished as state runners-up in the Class 2A fastpitch state tournament on Saturday. The Irish beAT LeSueur-Henderson 4-2 in the quarterfinals, New Ulm in the semifinals before losing 2-1 in 10 innings to Kasson-Mantorville in the state title game at Caswell Park in North Mankato.
In the CMC, the Irish split their series with Rockford Area to finish as co-champions with the Rockets. They went 6-1 in the Section 5AA playoffs, getting tagged with a 10-9 loss to Rockford in the winner's bracket final. In the section championship series, the Irish swept Rockford 7-3 and 7-2 to advance to the state tournament.
In 2008 and 2009, Maple Lake finished as Class 1A state runners-up.
Maple Lake head coach Tim Knudsen has had some tremendous fastpitch teams throughout the last 10-plus years. I don't know how long he's been the head coach there, but he has always put an outstanding team on the field. He is also head coach of Maple Lake's very good football program, which has had one-win seasons (2005) and multiple state tournament appearances.