Owatonna Faces Top Seed Lakeville North Saturday in 1AAAA Baseball

The winners bracket final on Saturday at Dundas will feature No. 1 seed Lakeville North and No. 3 Owatonna. Game time is 1:30PM on Kat Kountry 105FM.

The Huskies-Panthers winner advances to the section final Tuesday at 5PM, also at Memorial Park in Dundas. The loser will play again Saturday against the winner of the 11AM game between Lakeville South and Farmington.

Lakeville North (17-4) is No. 9 ranked in the state and has qualified for the state tournament the past three years. Owatonna (14-8) was the Section 1AAA runner-up behind Northfield last season and last appeared at state in 2009.

Owatonna coach Tate Cummins says the Panthers have a team batting average similar to Owatonna's, which is in the .250 range. He says North has had success this season due to strong pitching and defense. The Panthers' top two pitchers in innings thrown each have an ERA below 2.00. Owatonna's Clay Leidall has an ERA below 1.00.

Through the first two rounds of tournament play, Owatonna has built a lead early and held off late rallies by Rochester Century and Lakeville South. North has allowed just one run through two rounds after a 2-0 win over Farmington and a 5-1 victory over Rochester Mayo.

Section 1AAA baseball Saturday is in Red Wing where the Wingers will play top seed Northfield in the winners bracket and Winona and Albert Lea play an elimination game.

Section 1AA baseball features Lake City and Pine Island on the winners side and Chatfield and Dover-Eyota in the losers bracket. Games are in Rochester at Hudson Field and John Adams Middle School.