By Nick Gerhardt
nickgerhardt@mnbaseball.org
Shakopee took care of business at home Friday in a 6-0 win over Elko to advance to Labor Day weekend.
The Indians, the No. 4 seed out of Section 2, defeated Waconia in a best-of-five series just to advance to the state tournament and they’re sticking around. Shakopee has proven dangerous once in the state tournament with a surprise run to the state title game in 2023 against Air Freight.
The Indians got on the board early as Ryan Boldt, a former AAA player, took former major leaguer Jake Petricka deep to right field for the first run of the game.
No. 9-hitter Kolin Williams drove in a pair of runs and went 2-for-3 for Shakopee, which tallied 13 hits in the game. Joe Roder went 3-for-5 with a pair of runs with a double while Jack Schleper had a pair of hits and scored twice. Tanner Ho also had three hits from the lead-off spot and drove in a run with a groundout.
Jaden Case, Kaden Olson and Griff Larson combined to throw a four-hit shutout. Case got the start and threw six scoreless innings, walking none and striking out five while allowing just four hits. Olson threw two shutout innings in relief and struck out five while Larson threw a clean ninth inning, just surrendering a walk.
The Express committed five errors in the game but had a chance in the fifth inning when it loaded the bases with two outs. But Elko couldn’t come through with a clutch hit.
Petricka went 4 2/3 innings for the Express, which defeated Miesville in the section playoffs to grab the No. 1 seed. Petricka allowed six runs on 10 hits, walked one and struck out three in the loss.
Shakopee marches on to face the winner of St. Anthony-Northwest Orioles Saturday, Sept. 5 at 11 a.m. in Shakopee.
