New Life Academy at Minnehaha Academy
4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Apr. 5

Minnehaha Academy brings back all but four members from last year's championship team, but three of those departing players pitched a combined 118.2 of the team's 197 innings played. Senior Alex Evenson will try to fill the void after posting a 1.01 earned run average over 48 innings last season. Offensively, he was also a standout, leading the Redhawks with a .495 batting average and a 1.100 on-base slugging at the plate.

Minnehaha Academy has nine other seniors to help build off its back-to-back Class 2A finals appearances. In the ranks of the underclassmen, sophomore Noah Dehne is poised to take another step forward this year. He posted a .909 OPS in 98 plate appearances last season.

Left-handed pitcher Henry George returns for New Life Academy after pitching in three section playoff games last spring, posting a 1.31 ERA over 10 and 2/3 innings.

The Eagles have a stable of young talent with 12 underclassmen on its varsity roster to further bolster a squad that went 21-4 last season and graduated just four seniors.