Baseball: 5-16 season ends with 13-0 loss at No. 1 Burnsville

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When the Rosemount baseball team discovered it would be the No. 9 seed in the Class 3A, Section 3 tournament, it didn’t worry about earning a low seed.

Irish coach Chris Swansson said his squad got the seed it deserved after a disappointing regular season. With the seeding behind them, the Irish prepared to go on the road for the first round.

At least they felt confident going into the game against their first playoff opponent, Lakeville South. Rosemount beat the Cougars twice during the regular season.

“I thought we had a good chance of winning it,” Swansson said. “Going into the playoffs, we were feeling like we prepared ourselves well. We were working hard.”

The Irish beat Lakeville South, 6-3, last week in the first round of the section tournament. But the result of winning the 8-9 matchup meant a trip to home park of the No. 1 seed and Rosemount’s season ended Monday with a 13-0 loss against top seed Burnsville.

Throughout the season, Swansson has been waiting to see the Irish team he envisioned, one that could succeed in each facet of the game. Too often, the coach has seen his squad put together two of the three pieces.

“All year long we’ve had two of the three phases,” Swansson said. “If we played good defense and got the pitching, we weren’t hitting. It was always two of the three.”

But in two late games against Lakeville South, Rosemount (5-16) managed to complete the trifecta.

“It was nice to see all three parts together at the same time,” Swansson said. “It was frustrating during the season because I thought we were a better team. You could see it because of how we were doing each part, but it was never at the same time. I thought we were playing our best towards the end.”

The Irish snapped a nine-game losing streak by beating Lakeville South 13-2 and then lost a close 11-8 game against Eagan in the regular-season finale.

Against the Cougars in the playoffs, Rosemount demonstrated ability in all three phases of the game.

Andrew Nelson pitched a complete game, allowing three runs — two earned — on eight hits and a walk, while striking out four batters.

The Irish scored first and later came from behind to take the lead.

Nelson homered and had two runs scored and two RBIs. Morris Valenzuela had two hits. Trevor Kolden added a double, a run scored and an RBI.

“Everyone on the team played well that day,” Swansson said. “We got good pitching, defense, we hit the ball well. It was a complete game for all of our guys. It was pretty good to see that.”

Against the top-seeded Blaze, though, Rosemount struggled.

The Irish only put together four hits. Lucas Haase had two hits, Nelson singled and Jon Bishop doubled.

Rosemount committed three errors on the way to five unearned runs.

“It wasn’t just errors, we had mistakes that I don’t think we would normally make,” Swansson said. “It was disappointing for our guys because we didn’t represent ourselves like we would normally expect. We’ve worked hard all year.”

Jordan Tumilson took the loss after starting the game and pitching two innings, while giving up seven runs — six earned — on five hits and three walks. Tony Prostrollo pitched the final two innings, allowing six runs, but only two of which were earned. He gave up seven hits and walked two, while striking out three.

Tags: sports, rosemount, irish, prep, baseball