Amateur baseball: Bird Island Bullfrogs' dream falls short

Sep. 4—DELANO — In the end, this was simple. Bird Island was trying to make history and Maple Lake was attempting to sustain one of amateur baseball's most impressive legacies.

On this steaming hot Monday, Maple Lake took home Class C's holy grail, the state championship trophy.

Before an overflow crowd at Delano Municipal Baseball Park, Maple Lake beat Bird Island 6-4 to earn the Lakers their fourth state championship.

"We had an awesome ride," Maple Lake third baseman Matt Clapp said. "It's just been so fun to do it with these guys."

With the temperature reaching 97 degrees, the Lakers add 2023 to their state title resume, winning their first since 2012. Maple Lake also won in 1931 and 1939. It took second in 1936 and third in 1934, 1994 and 2008.

The Lakers have qualified for 33 state tournaments and demonstrated that experience, though they had the youngest player on the field Monday.

That would be Aiden Smith. The 17-year-old right-hander is a draft pick from the Rockford Crows. Because he pitches for his youth teams, he didn't throw a single pitch in an amateur baseball game until Monday, though he did play the field in North Star League games.

His 6-1/3 innings were welcomed by the Lakers, who had burned through their pitching staff through a weekend of tight tournament games. He struck out three, walked three and allowed six hits and two earned runs.

He also benefited from outstanding defense. The Lakers pulled off two incredible outfield catches that included great throws to double off Bird Island runners.

Throw in Clapp's full-speed race to catch a Braeden Tersteeg pop fly to left in foul territory in the ninth, and Maple Lake's defense certainly made championship plays to go with its championship.

"They certainly did," Bird Island manager Mike Nagel said.

The Bullfrogs, meanwhile, were trying to win their first state championship. And while they are in their fifth straight state tournament and making their seventh appearance since 1998, this was new territory.

"It was amazing," Nagel said. "But obviously, I wish we would have ended it a little bit differently.

"That's maybe too obvious. But I wouldn't trade it for anything or these guys for anything. These guys are like my family.

"We got outplayed. But that's baseball. We gave them too many free passes, left too many guys on and made too many mistakes."

The Bullfrogs used four pitchers, starting Charlie Jacobson, a draftee from Marshall. The unorthodox left-hander went three innings, gave up three runs, struck out five and hit four batters. Next up was Mitchell Bouwman, also from Marshall, who was making his third appearance of the weekend. He got the win in relief in a 3-0 victory over St. Martin on Sunday, then picked up the save in relief of Aidan Elfering in a 7-1 win over Buckman, also on Sunday.

Jared Dettmann, the 31-year-old left-hander and Nagel's son-in-law, then gutted out two innings Monday after starting the St. Martin game. The former Atlanta Braves minor-leaguer has shoulder issues, admitting it hasn't felt good in perhaps five years, but he wanted to help bring Bird Island a championship in the worst way.

"I love amateur baseball in Minnesota," said Dettmann, who is from Prescott, Wisconsin, and pitched for Century College in White Bear Lake and the University of Connecticut. "For me, it wasn't too hard (to pitch in pain).

"The guys are great. We have a great camaraderie and they're all really good ballplayers. I don't have to play, but I really want to. All the support we get is amazing and the atmosphere here (at the state tournament) is incredible."

Maple Lake opened the scoring with a run in the top of the third inning. Donnie Mavencamp's RBI single brought home Clapp, who singled and went to third on Hunter Malachek's bad-hop single to right. The inning began with an incredible diving catch by Bullfrogs right fielder Zeke Walton.

Bird Island got the run back in the bottom of the third. Tersteeg led off with a single and stole second. He went to third on Jordan Sagedahl's fielder's choice, then scored on Jimmy Woelfel's RBI single to center. Woelfel finished 2-for-4 with a walk, a double and three RBIs.

Maple Lake got two runs in the fourth and two more in the sixth to take a 6-1 lead. The Bullfrogs got a couple back in the seventh on Woelfel's RBI double and a run-scoring single by Elfering. Elfering's hit came on an attempted diving catch by the Lakers' Malachek that was ruled a trapped ball.

Bird Island picked up its last run in the bottom of the ninth off Dassel-Cokato draftee Jordan Flick, who was making his third appearance of the weekend. With one out after Clapp's impressive catch, Sagedahl singled and went all the way to third on a wild pitch. He scored on Woelfel's ground out. Elfering then hit a high fly ball to right that the Lakers' Ben Goelz patiently waited for to make the easy grab.

Maple Lake's dugout cleared and the Lakers celebrated their championship on the field.

Bird Island's players watched from the dugout.

"I live for this still," Dettmann said in the solemn Bullfrogs dugout on the first base side of the field, which was in the shade. Bird Island players embraced. The season was over one game short of their dream.

"Everybody stepped up, everybody played hard," said Nagel with his grandson on his lap. "We just didn't execute. If you don't execute in a championship game, you don't win.

"This one's going to hurt for a long time."

Maple Lake 001 203 000-6 8 2

Bird Island 001 000 201-4 10 3

Hitting — Maple Lake: Luke Fobbe 1-5 r sac, Ben Clapp 2-4 r-2 rbi sf hbp, Hunter Malachek 3-3 r rbi hbp, Donnie Mavencamp 1-4 rbi-2, Matt Bergstrom 1-4 rbi, Riley Decker 0-3 rbi sac, Mitch Wurm 0-0 bb, Logan Orazem 0-3 r hbp-2, Ben Goelz 0-4 r hbp ... Bird Island: Braeden Tersteeg 1-4 r-2 bb sb, Jordan Sagedahl 1-5 r-2, James Woelfel 2-4 2b rbi-3, Aidan Elfering 2-5 rbi, Logan Swann 3-4, Dylan Gass 1-3 2b

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so) — Maple Lake: Aiden Smith (W, Rockford Crows) 6.1-6-2-2-3-3, Jordan Flick (Dassel-Cokato Saints) 2.2-4-2-1-0-2... Bird Island: Charlie Jacobson (L, Marshall A's) 3-3-3-3-1-5, Mitchell Bouwman (Marshall A's) 1.2-1-0-0-0-1, Jared Dettmann (2-3-3-2-2-1), Sagedahl 2.1-1-0-0-1-1