trosenau@nujournal.com

MINNEAPOLIS — The New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds were able to put together a rally Saturday morning in the Class A State Baseball Tournament Championship, but the Red Lake County Rebels were relentless in their pursuit of their first-ever state championship and showed it by racking up 14 hits on the way to a 15-7 win at Target Field.

The Greyhounds (23-3) also committed four errors in the game, with two coming in a five-run top of the first by Red Lake County.

“They obviously jumped out to a lead, we made some mistakes in the first inning and they capitalized on them and that’s what good teams do,” Greyhounds head coach Alan Woitas said. “We fought to get back into it, we never quit. We put some runs on the board and we put pressure on them. But, ultimately, those few miscues might have cost us. It wasn’t one thing that changed the outcome of the game, and they hit the ball really well today.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Elliot Schabert pumps his fist in celebration after his three-run double in the third inning of the Class A State Baseball Tournament Championship against Red Lake County on Saturday morning at Target Field in Minneapolis.

Senior slugger Elliot Schabert finished the day leading Cathedral at the plate by going 2 for 3 with a double, four RBIs and a walk, while fellow senior Jake Finstad was 2 for 4 with a run scored and Alex Portner was 2 for 4. Eli Anderson was 1 for 4 with two RBIs also for the Greyhounds.

The Rebels (25-5) were led by Kegan Schmitz, who was 3 for 4 with two doubles and six RBIs, while Gunnar Halverson was 2 for 3 with a double and two RBIs and Ben Gullingsrud was 2 for 5 with a triple and two RBIs. Will Gieseke, the winning pitcher who went 6 2/3 innings with 115 pitches thrown, also had a pair of hits for the Rebels, along with Owen Chervestad.

Gieseke allowed nine hits and two walks for seven runs, five earned, while striking out six. Boe Nelson threw three pitches in relief and forced a pop out to end the game.

The Rebels were making their first-ever state title game appearance Saturday after knocking off top-seeded Parkers Prairie in a state semifinals game Thursday. That game started in St. Cloud before being suspended in the ninth inning due to rain and moved to Alexandria, where Red Lake County earned a 4-3 win in nine innings later in the day.

The Greyhounds, meanwhile, were in their first state title game since 2005, a year in which they won it all. The Greyhounds were hungry for another state championship, but the Rebels made things difficult from the start as they took advantage of a couple first-inning Cathedral errors and two hits for a 5-0 lead.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Elijah Rieser slides into third safely during the Class A State Baseball Tournament Championship game Saturday morning at Target Field in Minneapolis. Rieser walked before this photo and later scored on a double by Elliot Schabert.

A light mist leading up to the first pitch didn’t make for ideal baseball conditions either, which made every ground ball hit crucial for the Greyhounds to handle. Ultimately, two errors came in the first inning for Cathedral.

A two-run triple by Gullingsrud off senior starting pitcher Colin Anderson started the Rebels’ flurry, while one run came home on a sac fly, one scored on an error and one scampered home on a wild pitch.

Anderson took the loss in 1 1/3 innings pitched, allowing two hits, one walk and one hit batsman for five runs, four earned. He exited in the first inning but re-entered from the outfield later in the game and completed an inning.

“We knew they were going to be able to hit,” Anderson said. “I knew I’d have to throw strikes, so I couldn’t give them free bases, so that’s what I was trying to do. Obviously, conditions didn’t help, but throwing strikes is probably the mentality I was trying, and all season long.”

That tough start prompted a pitching change as senior Joey Schugel took the mound for the Greyhounds with just one out in the inning. Schugel got out of the inning, but the Rebels weren’t done.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Jake Finstad runs down a Red Lake County base runner between second and first base during the Class A State Baseball Tournament Championship on Saturday morning at Target Field in Minneapolis.

After Colin Anderson legged out an infield single in the bottom of the first, Schabert singled to right to bring home a sliding Colin Anderson and make it 5-1. In the second inning, however, the Rebels scored four more runs, led by a bases-loaded triple by Schmitz to make it an 8-1 game. After Schugel issued a walk and forced a flyout for the first out, Chervestad singled in another run to end Schugel’s time on the mound and bring senior Caleb Forstner in to pitch. Forstner was able to escape the inning thanks to a 6-4-3 double play, but the Rebels scored two runs in the top of the third off him to lead 11-1.

With a dire need to put runs on the board in a hurry to avoid ending the game early, the Greyhounds put together a five-run innings of their own in the bottom of the third.

After Elijah Rieser walked to lead off the bottom of the third, Finstad reached on a fielder’s choice and an error in the infield. A Forstner single filled the bases before a flyout brought up Schabert for another chance to add to his RBI total.

“Elliot’s been that guy all year,” Finstad said. “We rely on him to do what he does and he did it again today.”

With the bases full, Schabert was once again Mr. Clutch as he got a hold of a pitch and sent it to left-center field to score all three runners and have the Greyhounds down 11-4.

“They were just my pitch,” Schabert said. “I was going out there with everything I had. This is the hardest I’ve ever played a game in my entire life and you know, you don’t get another game in a Cathedral uniform, so I was just kind of giving it everything I had and playing with my whole heart on the field.”

Portner then singled in Schabert to make it an 11-5 game.

That offensive outburst had Greyhounds fans believing again that a fairy-tale comeback could be in store.

“That’s just a testament to the leaders we have on this team,” Woitas said. “They never drop their heads in that situation. It’s, ‘How are we going to figure it out?’ That’s kind of what we’ve done all year — found different ways to win games, compete and they do it better than most.”

Unfortunately for the Greyhounds, the Rebels kept putting solid contact on the ball and grabbed two more runs in the fourth inning and two more in the seventh to help put things away. Cathedral got one run back in between those innings with a run in the fifth after Eli Anderson reached on a fielder’s choice that brought home pinch runner Rylan Koopmann.

Schugel finished with one inning of work, allowing four earned runs on two hits and three walks while striking out one. Forstner ended up pitching 4 2/3 innings in relief, allowing 10 hits and two walks for six earned runs while striking out four.

After allowing two more Red Lake County runs, Forstner stepped off the mound for a returning Colin Anderson, who retired the final three Rebels hitters in the game with two flyouts and a pop up back to him.

“It was nice to kind of have a second chance to come back in and hopefully shut the gate, but that’s not what ended up happening,” Colin Anderson said. “But really to almost redeem myself in a way.”

Schabert, who ended up making the All-Tournament Team with Finstad, said he was honored to play on Target Field with his teammates.

“We obviously came up a little short when it mattered most, but not everyone gets the opportunity to play on Target Field, so all that’s behind me and I’m just grateful I got a chance to play at a ballpark like this,” Schabert said.

Colin Anderson echoed Schabert’s thoughts and was happy his senior was full of successes.

“Just grateful to be able to have this opportunity to play here,” Colin Anderson said. “A lot of fun with all the guys and coaches, and it was even more fun that we were successful.”

Finstad said despite Saturday’s outcome not being what he was hoping for, the journey was worth it.

“It’s been an incredible journey,” Finstad said. “I wouldn’t trade this year for anything. All the guys, coaches doing a fabulous job and I wouldn’t trade it.”