It took Blake two games to punch its first ever ticket to the state tournament, but the Bears made history with their 3-0 victory over Holy Angels in the Class 2A, Section 4 championship game on Friday afternoon at St. Anthony Village High School.

No. 3-seeded Blake lost 3-1 to No. 8 seed Holy Angels in Friday's first championship game. That was Blake’s first loss of in the double elimination tournament, so the Bears and Stars played again to determine the section champion.

George Blackwell, who has coached at Blake since 2001, said it was difficult to bounce back from the initial loss.

“It was hard because they had just come off a 10-game winning streak, and all of a sudden it hit them that, ‘Boy this is going to be tough,' ” Blackwell said. “We really wanted to get after them right away in the first game, and then you could just see the energy level and emotion level just come down and down and down.” 

The Bears met during the break between the first and second game. 

“There wasn’t anybody saying anything,” Blackwell said. “There wasn’t any words spoken, but I just wanted to make sure that they understood we got to dig deeper and then dig a little bit deeper than that in order to come back and these kids did, so I’m excited.” 

Holy Angels finished the season with a 7-13 recored but but defeated the No. 1 seed St. Anthony Village, No. 2 DeLaSalle, and No. 4 Minnehaha Academy in the section playfs. The Stars lost to St. Anthony in the second round of the winner’s bracket to move them to the loser’s bracket, and Stolt said being in the winner’s bracket was advantageous. 

“We had short memories,” Blake's Eric Stolt said. “We just moved on.”    

It didn’t take Stolt long to forget about the Bears' defeat. Stolt hit his first high school home run in the first inning of the second. The blast proved to be the winning run.

“That one felt great,” Stolt said. “I got a good piece of it. It was my first high school home run, so it was great timing for it, too.” 

Bears ace Robert Dworsky had great timing all whole game. Dworsky threw a complete game shutout and gave up just three hits while striking out eight and walking two. 

“It was all adrenaline,” Dworsky said. “It was a long first game, but I wasn’t going to lose this one. This was a fun one.”

Dworsky started playing for Blake’s baseball team his freshman year.

“I feel so good for my teammates, they all deserve it,” Dworsky said. “The reason why we were in this position is because one-through-fourteen gets the job done every game and I thank them for that. It’s awesome.”   

Blackwell said being named section champion is just the beginning. 

“If we continue to make plays, we’re going to get there,” Blackwell said. “Like I told the kids, ‘We’re not going to stop here.’ This is great. We won our region. We’re going to the state tournament next week and our objective right now is to win this thing.”

First Report

First Game

Holy Angels starting pitcher John Spainer struck out eight as he went the distance in the Stars' 3-1 win over the Blake in the first game of the Class 2A, Section 4 final at Palm Field in St. Anthony on Friday afternoon.    

Blake starting pitcher Eric Stolt also pitched a complete game. Stolt struck out four and  walked four.  

Holy Angels scored its initial run in the first inning on catcher Jack Piram's single to right field. 

The Stars didn't score again until the sixth. First baseman Joe Sullivan doubled down the left field line to score a run. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, Holy Angels designated hitter Jake Orner hit a hard grounder at Blake shortstop Mark Lyman. Lyman was unable to get Orner out at first, which scored another run to make it 3-0 in the sixth inning. 

Blake scores its lone run in the in the sixth inning. Bears left fielder Stuart Hesdorffer hit a single to right field, driving in Mark Lyman from third.

Second game

Blake captain and starting pitcher Robert Dwosrsky tossed a three-hitter to help the Bears reach the state tournament for the first time in program history by beating Holy Angels 3-0 in the Class 2A, Section 4 championship game at Palm Field in St. Anthony Village Friday afternoon.  

Blake first baseman and opening-game starting pitcher Eric Stolt hit a solo home run to left field in the first inning to put the Bears (23-6) on top 1-0. In the third inning, Blake third baseman Mark Lyman hit a solo shot that looked almost identical to Stolt's. The Bears added another run in the sixth inning, when Matt Mitchell singled to left field to score left fielder Stuart Hesdorffer from third.  

Holy Angels starting pitcher Shannon Ahern didn't have the same success as Dwosrsky. The Stars (13-15) hurler threw 5 2/3 innings, gave up three runs along with nine hits.

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