Rocori Wins Section Title to Advance to the State Tournament

COLLEGEVILLE -- The Rocori Spartans baseball team is heading back to the Minnesota State High School League state tournament.

Rocori came out of the loser’s bracket of the Section 5-3A tournament – winning a handful of games throughout the course of two days – and beat Monticello twice to advance to the Class 3A state tournament for the ninth time in program history.

The Spartans took down Monticello 7-2 on Wednesday at St. John’s University to claim the section title in Collegeville.

Rocori jumped out to a large lead in the sixth inning, thanks to a four-run inning and never looked back.

“The fact that our kids won five games in a span of about 50 hours … I’ve never experienced anything like that. It doesn’t happen,” Rocori coach Jeff Illies told the St. Cloud Times. “It’s a credit to these kids and their resiliency because it’s tough to do.”

Matt Koshiol led the way for the Spartans at the plate in the game, going 2-for-3 with a home run, two RBI and two runs scored. Jack Steil went 1-for-3 with two RBI and one run scored, Reed Ruegemer went 1-for-3 with one run scored and one RBI and Mason Primus went 1-for-4 with one RBI.

Dalton Thelen finished 1-for-2 with one RBI and one runs scored, Brady Klehr finished 2-for-4 and Brandon Gill added one hit and scored one run for Rocori.

Klehr put together a stellar performance on the mound for the Spartans to hold the Magic in check, earning a complete-game win. He gave up eight hits, one earned run, two walks and struck out three.

“They scored two runs in the first and then he really settled down,” Illies told the Times. “I can’t tell you enough about how well he pitched. It was a great performance.”

With the win, Rocori advances to the Class 3A state tournament and will kick off play in the tournament on June 14 at Siebert Field in Minneapolis.