Class B Baseball: Back in the championship for Chanhassen Red Birds
Posted on Sep 05, 2020

By Eric Kraushar

swnewsmedia.com

 

Chanhassen playing on the last day of the summer baseball season. A tradition that started in 2017 and has continued to the present.

State champions in 2018 and 2019, the Red Birds, winners of 22 straight games, are one win away from a three-peat after beating Moorhead 4-2 in the winners bracket final on Sept. 4 at Schleper Stadium in Shakopee.

Chanhassen will play in the championship at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 6. If the Red Birds lose, a second game would follow 30 minutes after.

John Straka improved to 3-0 in the state tournament, striking out eight batters in a complete-game effort against Moorhead.
 
After surrendering four hits and a run on a Brandt Kolpack RBI-single in the opening two hits, Straka held the Brewers to one hit and two walks the rest of the way.

Moorhead scored a run in the ninth inning on a Kolpack run-scoring hit with the tying run reaching base on a hit-by-pitch. Straka got a called third strike of pinch hitter Grant Wehseler for the final out.

Chanhassen took the lead for good in the third inning, scoring twice after Nick Smith reached on a bunt single and an error allowed allowed Brandon Arnold on base. A Zach Hoffmann sacrifice fly and double steal produced the 2-1 lead.

Arnold drove in Aaron Pfaff with a one-out single in the sixth inning, chasing Moorhead starter David Ernst.

A key insurance run in the eighth inning on an Arnold single, Michael Jurgella walk and Hoffmann RBI-single increased the lead to 4-1.

Arnold, Aaron Kloeppner, Pfaff, and Smith each collected two hits for the Red Birds.

Moorhead will meet the winner of Cold Spring and Miesville at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 5. The first game of the day is scheduled for 1 p.m.