3A state softball: Rocori tops Byron for title

There were no horseshoes four-leaf clovers or rabbit s feet spotted on the Rocori bench Friday afternoon But Lady Luck sure was wearing black and red The Spartans scored eight unearned runs to beat Byron - in the Class A softball final at the University of Minnesota It is the first state title for Rocori - which entered as the fifth seed but beat No Becker - in a -inning quarterfinal and upset top-seeded Mankato East - in the semis You have to put the ball in play to win games making them make mistakes putting the pressure on them and that s what we did disclosed Sophia Hess who had two of the squad s eight hits Tied at in the fifth Rocori s Jessica Boos singled to plate Jordyn Illies who led off the inning by reaching on an error and taking second on a wild pitch Boos scored two batters later on a throwing error Two more runs scored on a sixth-inning error as Rocori widened its lead Byron finished with five errors four hits and struck out times against Boos Rocori played loose and I don t think we did commented coach Jacob Harmon An infield throwing error on a ground ball allowed two Rocori runners to outcome in the second and a dropped fly ball in the third made it - Spartans That lead did not last two outs Sixth-seeded Byron - got one back in the fourth with an RBI ground-rule double by Kaydence Fjerstad before Ella Brennan lined a two-run single to points two more Bears We bounced back nice but then it kind of snowballed on us and got of hand Harmon mentioned Not all their hits were great hits A lot of bloopers that fell in just getting a piece of the changeup or this or that Those balls didn t fall for us With the match tied Boos announced the Spartans kept their poise It was a - championship from there and we just knew what we had to do and we got runners we kept hitting the ball we strung them together Related Articles State softball Husom does it with bat and glove Champlin Park rules A East Metro Softball Player of the Year Forest Lake s Avery Muellner State boys tennis St Paul Academy finishes off fourth straight title State softball Champlin Park s Ava Parent walks-off White Bear Lake State softball roundup Jefferson upsets Forest Lake in A semifinals