Owatonna VFW Baseball Wins District Title, Advances to State for the First Time

Owatonna's VFW baseball squad overcame top seed Northfield two out of three times over the weekend. Monday's 8-1 win clinched a trip to the state tournament Aug. 6-9.

The district title qualifies Owatonna's VFW team for its first state tournament trip in program history. Post 3723 entered the final four tournament as the third seed, but beat Rochester and Northfield before losing to Northfield on Sunday afternoon, forcing a second championship game Monday night.

Owatonna prevailed 8-1 behind the combined pitching efforts of Jacob Gauthier and Brady Schuster. At the plate, Kodey Kiel and Nathan Deason had two hits apiece. Noah Budach, Brett Solie and Brock Hanson each had a run batted in.

The state tournament starts Aug. 6 in New Ulm. The schedule will be announced soon.

The Region 5C amateur playoffs are set. Owatonna is the No. 3 seed and will host a game on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Wanamingo is the top seed. Winona is second and Stewartville-Racine is fourth. The other four teams for the double elimination tournament will be determined by best-of-three series July 31-Aug. 2. The match-ups are Pine Island against Kasson, Waseca faces Tri County, Hayfield plays Plaineview and Zumbrota will battle the Rochester Road Runners.