Summer sports took center stage over the weekend, shining bright in a trio of do-or-die postseason events

BASEBALL: OWATONNA VFW POST 3723

Despite an anticlimactic finish and strange final few hours of baseball, the Owatonna VFW team was all smiles on Sunday night.

They already had their ticket, and now they finally had their title.

Having already cliched the first of two state tournament berths up for grabs in District 1 by winning a pair of games on Saturday, Owatonna officially secured the district championship after Rochester Mayo decided to forfeit its matchup against Post 3723 less than an hour prior to when it was scheduled to start.

The Spartans had just secured their spot in the state tournament earlier in the day by beating cross-town rival Rochester Century in an intense, back-and-forth battle and the coaching staff simply found little benefit in situation that would have required Mayo to win on Sunday and return to Dartts Park the next day and play another game just satisfy the double-elimination format.

Though it’s unclear exactly why the teams elected to ultimately take the field and play a full seven inning game, it was likely influenced by the fact that the umpires were already on the scene and the Owatonna players were fully-dressed when Mayo announced its intentions to preemptively forfeit the contest. The Spartans jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held off a late Post 3723 rally to “win” 5-4.

Owatonna earned the No. 1 seed of the 15 teams that competed in the District 1 tournament and carries a 31-10 record into the state seedings process on Monday night.

On Saturday, Post 3723 beat Red Wing and Mayo by a combined score of 22-2. This will be Owatonna’s third VFW state tournament appearance in the last eight years. The competition runs August 2-6 and takes place in St. Cloud.

Click HERE for more information on the event.

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SOFTBALL: OWATONNA CRUSH 18U

The Owatonna Crush wrapped up its finest season in program history at the NAFA Northern Nationals in Chaska on Sunday, ultimately finishing fourth of 74 teams.

Owatonna won its first five games at the massive event — capped by an 11-1 victory over the Illinois Storm on Sunday in a game that saw Mehsa Krause spin a no-hitter — and its only two defeats came against of the eventual national champion and runner-up.

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BASEBALL: OWATONNA ACES

And, finally, the Owatonna Aces kept their season alive and qualified for the Region 5C tournament by taking down the Rochester Roadrunners twice in 48 hours.

After losing the opener of the best-of-three series last Wednesday at home, the Aces forced Sunday’s do-or-die showdown with an 8-7 win on Friday in Rochester.

Building a 7-1 lead after just four innings, Owatonna cruised to a 12-2 victory on its home field the following night.