Two months ago, Eden Prairie was scuffling, losing four of their first five games. Simply winning would have been enough. Playing for a state championship was nothing more than a fuzzy dream.

After a 14-0, five-inning drubbing of Lakeville North on Friday in the Class 4A semifinals at CHS Field, the Eagles’ dream has become a crystal clear reality.

“It’s hard to sit there at 1-4 and say you know you’re going to be here, but we always believed it could happen,” Eden Prairie coach John Buteyn said. “We knew we had the level of talent and if we stuck with it, we had the opportunity.”

The Eagles (17-9) set the tone from the outset, scoring twice in the top of the first. The Panthers got a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning, but that was the only base-hit they could muster off Eden Prairie lefthander Torben Urdahl.

In the meantime, Eden Prairie was piling up hits and runs in bunches. The Eagles scored four runs in the top of the third, two of them on Connor Kehl’s two-run home run into the leftfield bullpen. Kehl added two more RBI with a double in a six-run fourth and finished with four RBI, as did rightfielder Connor Young.

Shortstop Zac Elliott went 3-for-4 and scored three runs and leftfielder Bailey DeMets went 2-for -3 with three RBI for Eden Prairie, which put up a season-high in runs scored.

“We’re really hot right now,” said Kehl in making the tournament’s biggest understatement. “It’s an amazing experience, especially when everyone is hot and doing their job.”

One day after his team knocked the state’s best pitcher, Burnsville’s Sam Carlson, out of the game in the second inning, Lakeville North coach Tony Market talked about being on the other end of a lop-sided result.

“They’re kids, 15-, 16-, 17-years-old, playing a grown man’s game mentally,” Market said. “You have to overcome some adversity and it’s tough to battle through some of that.”

Eden Prairie will be playing in the Class 4A championship game for the first time since losing to Mounds View in the 2014 final.

Eden Prairie, which started the season 1-4, pounded out 12 hits and scored a season-high 14 runs to rout Lakeville North 14-0 in five innings in the Class 4A semifinals.

Connor Kehl homered and doubled and Torben Urdahl pitched a one-hitter for the Eagles (17-9).

Check back later for more on the game.