South Ridge Baseball Clinches No. 1 Seed in State Tournament for First Time in Program History

South Ridge is set to square off with unseeded Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa tomorrow at Joe Faber Field. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 PM.

DULUTH, Minn.- In last week’s Section 7A Championship game the South Ridge Panthers were one win away from another trip to the State Tournament. Tied with Cherry in extra innings, senior Carter Anderson got the game winning knock that punch the ticket for the Panthers for the fifth straight season.

South Ridge heads into this week’s State Tournament as the top seed for the first time in program history, earning that mark by boasting a 22-4 record this season.

Head Coach Aaron Weber says his team has been preparing for the beast that is the State Tournament for the past few seasons.

“Playing in these tight games definitely helps our team a lot and we’ve been trying to do that these last couple years, playing harder schedules than we have in year’s past. Just being in those close games, those big situations, seeing guys like Carter come through. That’s stuff we haven’t always had the opportunity in the past because a lot of times we haven’t had close games. Learning from those mistakes and taking advantage of those opportunities has helped this team a lot,” says Weber, “Our guys have earned the confidence, we’ve had a really good year, these guys have been working for this for a couple years now, so I think this is the one.”

For senior Carter Anderson, this will be his last shot at a State Title alongside his teammates. Anderson says he’s ready to prove small school’s can pack a big punch.

“These last few years I’ve enjoyed it but no it’s my senior year and it’s my last chance to do something like this, it’s really nice to be able to go down there and have a chance to be able to make it down to State where a lot of those other teams are down in the Cities, I mean you don’t hear much about teams up in Culver, Minnesota. So, it’s nice to be able to show what we can do,” says Anderson.

South Ridge is set to square off with unseeded Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa tomorrow at Joe Faber Field. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 PM.