Orioles, Royals rolling en route to state collision
Class C teams meet in 1st round Sunday
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CHASKA -- With a blend of veteran and youth talent, strong competition throughout the season and a recent history of success, the Leavenworth Orioles and Richmond Royals make for an intriguing first-round state matchup.
The teams will meet at 11 a.m. Sunday in the first round of the Class C Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament in Chaska at Athletic Field.
While this will be the Royals' 17th state amateur baseball tournament appearance, they've made it to state four of the last six years. However, their first win at state in 24 years came in 2022 when they defeated the Hinckley Knights in the opening round of the Class C tourney. The Royals missed the state tournament in 2023 and 2025, but it hasn't been easy for them in a Stearns County League and region full of heavy hitters like Elrosa, Atwater, Starbuck and Farming.
The Orioles, who will be competing in their 11th state tournament, returned to state last year for the first time since 2012. In the Class C state tourney last year, Leavenworth earned a dominant 11-0 win in eight innings win over the Randall Cubs in the first round before falling to the eventual state runner-up Le Sueur Braves 1-0 in the second round.
It did take the Orioles some time to end their state tournament drought, but they have had plenty of tough competition to deal with over the years and recently in the Tomahawk East League and Region 2C, such as the now Class A New Ulm Brewers and a pair of Class C state title favorites, the Hanska Lakers and Courtland Cubs. Add in a host of other strong Region 2C teams that have made several state tournament appearances since 2012 like the Lamberton Long Sox (nine state appearances since 2012), Stark Longhorns (five since), Springfield Tigers (four since) and Sleepy Eye Indians (four since), the Orioles' path to get back to state has included several hills to climb.
The Orioles and Royals both have a handful of seasoned amateur players who have been stalwarts, but both teams also have a share of young guns who have taken over and helped them see more success in recent years.
The Orioles, managed by Zach Mickelson, have been led by 20-year-old right-handed pitcher Mark Anderson, a Sleepy Eye St. Mary's grad who currently pitches for DIII Bethel University. Anderson will get the start on Sunday and he brings in a 4-2 record with a 2.44 ERA in 62 2/3 innings of work.
"When you've got a guy like Mark Anderson, you've got to go with him," Zach Mickelson said. "He's been our hot hand and he's been a leader on the mound all year."
The Royals, managed by Dylan Adams, are led by 26-year-old righty Dalton Thelen, a Gustavus Adolphus College grad. Thelen will get the nod Sunday against the Orioles.
"He's been our ace all season long," Adams said. "We obviously took the one seed and so we got to draft Ty Reller (New Munich), Cam Miller (Farming) and Carter Wessel (Lake Henry) through the region. But we've got veterans as far as Luke Jokela (32-year-old left-hander). We've got quite a bit of arms as well, but we'll start with Dalton."
Thelen is 7-0 on the year with a 1.47 ERA in 73 2/3 innings of work.
Anderson and the pitching staff, including Dylan Hillesheim, have been consistent, but the Orioles have been aided by a potent offense that has torn the cover of the ball lately.
Jevan Richert leads the Orioles bats with a .446 batting average, five homers and 28 RBIs, all team-highs. The 27-year-old Springfield High School grad has been joined by six other players hitting over .300 on the year, including Jackson Huiras (.386 BA), Austin Uecker (.373), Anderson (.357), Hillesheim (.345), Jaden Mickelson (.326) and Jackson Ludewig (.322).
All-around, the offense is rolling for the Orioles.
"We are hitting the ball," Zach Mickelson said. "Just patient at-bats and making their opposing pitchers work, that's the biggest thing. The Lamberton game we had [in the Region 2C playoffs], we had their starting pitcher [Quintyn Vold], which we knew he was going to be good, he was at 71 pitches in the third inning. I'm like, 'Just make him throw pitches.'"
Zach Mickelson said his younger brother, Jaden Mickelson, wasn't planning to play as much as he has this year. Jaden Mickelson stuck around, however, and locked in for playoffs at the expense of his big brother's batting gloves.
"He was like, 'Hey, your batting gloves that you let me use all year in my bag, they're kind of falling apart. You want to go get some new ones?'" Zach Mickelson said. "I said, 'I haven't even swung the bat all year, why are you wrecking my batting gloves? [laughs] Go buy your own damn batting gloves.' But I think kind of when you get into playoffs, playoff mode and these games late, it's the sport of baseball. It just doesn't come out of you, you've got to want to play it and I kind of see that with him."
Younger players coming in have been a big boost for the Orioles in making it back to state last year and it's been a compliment again this year. But getting everyone back one through nine for the run back to state has tipped the scales even more.
"Just getting everybody back on the field," Zach Mickelson said. "We all knew when he had our best nine, and that's not taking anything away from anybody else that stepped into the role of missing positions or a guy that doesn't always start, but when we haven't had somebody there, I have guys that fall right into it. Then we got into our starting nine.
"I always kept telling the guys, 'Just one game at a time, one game at a time.' Lost to Courtland [in the Region 2C playoffs], that was a tough one, but Courtland's an excellent baseball team and we hung with them right there and I told [Courtland coach] John Giefer, 'I threw everything but the kitchen sink at you and you guys were just the better team that day.' We knew we were a good team. In our eyes, I think anybody's beatable, but we were there once already at state last year, but let's get back again because it was a hell of a ride last year."
The Orioles finished their 2026 regular season with a 9-8 mark, but they have hit their stride at the perfect time in the postseason, going 5-1 in the Region 2C tournament to finish third in the region and move to 14-9.
The Orioles will bring along three right-handed draftee pitchers to state in Jack Howard (Sacred Heart, 24 years old), Zach Haala (Stark, 26 years old) and Madden Lendt (Springfield, 16 years old).
Back to the similarities, the Royals are also putting it all together at the prime time. After losing to Farming 9-7 on July 12, they didn't lose another league game the rest of the year and beat Farming twice after that before going 3-0 in the Region 8C playoffs to win the Region 8C championship and their eighth game in a row.
Tyler Prom, a 20-year-old catcher, leads the Royals at the plate with a .400 batting average, eight home runs and 32 RBIs, all team-highs. Four other Royals are hitting over .300 this season also in Andrew Hadley (.380 BA), Cooper Notch (.342), Kyle Budde (.325) and Caleb Maddox (.318).
"We lead off with Caleb Maddox and going into the region tournament, he has 70 at-bats with only two walks all season long," Adams said. "Cooper Notch, he's going to be a junior in high school and he's hitting around .400. Up and down the lineup we're pretty good. We've got a guy, Tyler Prom, he'll be our catcher, he's got a total of eight home runs and plays at Dakota County down in Rosemount, so he's a pretty good player. And Cole Schmitz is our No. 4 hitter, he has been about as steady as can be. He's about 35 years old, but he can still swing it like crazy, too."
Adams said his team has been led all year by what they have shown on the mound and in the field, but it has been clear that the Royals get enough offense to make it all come together.
"Most everything all year has been pitching and defense," Adams said. "We get the timely hit here and we get the clutch home run. Cole in the region [tournament], back-to-back games, we were down two runs and he ended up hitting the two-run home run in the eighth inning to give us a 3-2 lead and that ended up being the final. Then in the state qualifier, it was 6-5 and he had a two-run homer run in the bottom of the sixth to put us up 7-6 and we ended up winning 8-6."
The winner of this Sunday's matchup will take on the winner of Sunday's Cologne Hollanders-Morris Eagles game in a 4 p.m. second-round game Saturday, Aug. 29, in Jordan.