Lakeville South defeated Stillwater 17-8 at Eden Prairie High School on Thursday to advance to the girls lacrosse state championship game.

South midfielder Tori Tschida led the way for the Cougars with four goals and six assists, with fellow attacker Ella Mills and midfielders Sivanna O’Brien and Katie Grubbs combining for 10 goals and two assists. Stillwater attackers Jackylyn Richert and Lydia Glass scored two goals each.

“To get the opportunity to play for the championship is great,” Lakeville head coach Joel Tornell said. “They pushed for it. They wanted it to happen, and they pushed for it.”

The Cougars will meet Prior Lake at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday in Eden Prairie for the state title.

Stillwater’s Rayna Malmberg scored the first goal of the game just three minutes into the game. Grubbs responded just 16 seconds later with a goal of her own, starting a swift 5-0 Lakeville run in just under five minutes of play. The Cougars held a 7-2 lead after the first quarter.

Lakeville’s Charlotte Fannin put another point on the board 26 seconds into the second quarter to extend the lead to six. But Stillwater responded nicely with a 4-1 run the rest of the quarter to cut the Cougar lead in half — trailing, 9-6, heading into the break.

“Our biggest issue is that we need possession,” Mills said of Lakeville’s second quarter struggles. “Once we have possession, we have the ball, like, I don’t think there’s any team that could stop us. … we took deep breaths, we are calm and we got that ball back.”

O’Brien halted the Ponies’ momentum with back-to-back goals within the first three minutes of the second half. Tschida scored the Cougars’ 12th goal of the game shortly after as Lakeville extended the lead back up to six right out of the break. Stillwater and Lakeville notched one goal each through the next eight minutes as the Cougars led, 13-7, after three periods.

“We had a little setback, for part of the game we didn’t play as well,” Tornell said. “We got back rolling in the third quarter and things kind of smooth back out.”

Lakeville continued to pour it on Stillwater scoring four goals to the Ponies’ one to secure the victory and a spot in the state title game.

“We’re very excited,” Tschida said. “We’re more focused on the team win and not on stats today. We’re excited to be in this game because, obviously, we were in it last year and we wanted to come back, especially for our seniors.”

“I think we gave it our all definitely sucks,” Stillwater coach Carly Fedorowski said. “But we just came up short and yellow cards don’t help. When we end up in the box, not very good things happen. But we’ll come back better than ever on Saturday. We’ve got another chance to end on a win.”

Stillwater will take on Benilde-St Margaret’s for third place at 1 p.m. Saturday at Eden Prairie High School.

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Esko 3, Montevideo 2: The top seed scored three runs in the first frame and then held on for victory.

Bobby Thornton hit an RBI triple in the first inning, then stole home later in the frame.

Finn Furcht threw a complete game, striking out eight and allowing just one unearned run.

Foley 6, Zumbrota-Mazeppa 5: The No. 4-5 quarterfinal was tied at 3-3 entering the final frame. Zumbrota-Mazeppa scored twice in the top of the frame to take a 5-3 lead.

But then Foley, the No. 4 seed, scored three times in the bottom of the frame, winning the game on a sacrifice fly from Bryce Gapinski that scored Wyatt Lueck.

Foley will meet Esko in a Class 2A semifinal on Friday.

Rockford 2, Blake 1: The No. 2 seed trailed 1-0 heading into the final frame, but scored twice in the seventh, winning the game on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Colton Lundberg that scored Harrison Edwards.

William Haas threw a complete game for Rockford, striking out 10 batters.

Le Sueur-Henderson 9, Perham 1: The No. 3 seed was ousted as senior second baseman Samuel Gupton went 4 for 5 at the dish with four RBIs and two runs scored.

Logan Feeney struck out nine batters in six and two-thirds innings for Le Sueur-Henderson.

Le Sueur-Henderson will meet Rockford in a Class 2A semifinal on Friday in St. Cloud.

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Royce Lewis has been tormenting opposing pitchers since his return earlier this month. It seems Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton are now joining in on the fun.

The Twins’ big trio, led on Thursday by Correa, combined for eight hits in the team’s 6-2 win over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night at Target Field.

Correa entered the day with 11 hits in his past 18 at-bats, highlighted by five on Wednesday. His follow up act was a three-hit day, this one punctuated by a two-run home run in the seventh inning that helped give the Twins a comfortable cushion.

That home run earned him the honors of being the first to rock the Twins’ new celebration get-up: a Prince-themed vest with a fedora and guitar, appropriately introduced on Prince Night at Target Field. The new celebration is said to be the brainchild of starter Pablo López, who also thought up the since-retired fishing vest that the Twins donned after hitting home runs last year.

Correa’s first hit was an infield single and his second, which came in the fourth, broke open a game that had been tied in the third.

The shortstop also scored a run in the second, racing home to score on Buxton’s single up the middle, which tied the game at the time. Buxton, who had one hit on Wednesday and a pair of them — including a home run — on Tuesday, finished the day with three on Thursday, also reaching on a walk in his last plate appearance.

And just for good measure, Lewis added a pair of his own, scoring on Correa’s late home run.

That trio helped give starter Joe Ryan (5-5) the run support he needed during his seven-inning effort.

Ryan allowed a leadoff walk in the second and then promptly served up a two-run blast to Tyler Soderstrom on a splitter. But then Ryan settled in, giving up just two more hits in his start. It’s his fourth start of his last five in which Ryan threw seven innings.

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It’s scientifically impossible to quantify, but maybe a first-inning leaping catch by its left fielder was simply what St. Thomas Academy needed to keep its magical turnaround going.

However, that charmed stretch crashed hard late.

Jack Anderson hit a two-run single to cap a three-run seventh inning, and top-seeded Benilde-St. Margaret’s rallied past the Cadets 6-5 in a Class 3A baseball quarterfinal on Thursday at Chaska Athletic Park.

“That’s Red Knights baseball,” said Ford Stoen, who had one of the four straight singles in the seventh for Benilde-St. Margaret’s. “We’ve had so many wins like that. We’re so clutch. We hit all the way through.”

The loss stings, no doubt, but for St. Thomas Academy players and coaches there is plenty for which to be proud considering where this team was just a few weeks ago.

The Cadets (12-13) started the season 6-1 before losing 11 of their final 13 regular season games. Seeded fourth in their section, they won four straight games.

Coach Bobby Thompson said his team had two choices against the 21-3 Red Knights: roll over against the No. 1 seed or compete with your best effort. “I’m incredibly proud of them today.”

“We put our best foot forward tonight, and that’s all you can ask for,” said Michael Stavseth, who had a web gem to save a couple runs in the first for St. Thomas Academy.

Already up 1-0 in the first, Anderson crushed a J.D. Dobis offering that appeared to have home run written all over it. However, Stavseth made a highlight catch by leaping at the wall, fully extending and reaching his glove over the yellow line and snagging the ball.

A standing ovation came from the Cadets faithful; Red Knights players applauded from their dugout, too.

“There were hitting them deep on J.D. early in the first inning and I just kind of stood back and envisioned a robbery. In my head I’m thinking that’d be crazy because I never robbed one like that before. Twenty seconds later, he hits one off the bat. I just sprint to the wall, find it, and I don’t really know. It was a dream really,” Stavseth said. “That catch kept us in the game for essentially the whole game.”

“Tip of the cap to him,” Anderson said of his good friend, “but I definitely got him back at the end of the game,”

Dobis, a University of Minnesota recruit, allowed five hits and struck out seven in six innings. Of his 103 pitches, 63 were strikes but his pitch count kept him on the bench in the seventh.

“We were on him to start, but he’s one damn good pitcher and one of my very, very close friends,” Anderson said. “Fun to compete against him.”

Three straight singles with one out in the seventh got Benilde with one before Anderson lined a single into right-center and the celebration was on near the first-base dugout.

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