The Miesville Mudhens won the Minnesota Baseball Association’s Class B state championship on Labor Day with a 6-3 win over the Moorhead Brewers

The Mudhens won Saturday, Sept. 4, 5-4 in walk-off fashion against the Shakopee Indians to advance to the state championship game.  In a back and forth game, Miesville had the last laugh as Chuck Bruchu had the game winning RBI single with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th.  Ryan Fritze picked up the win on the mound 2 innings of scoreless relief.

In the championship game, Miesville didn't give Moorhead much of a chance as starting pitcher Steve Maher took a complete game shut-out into the ninth inning and the Miesville bats slowly chipped away at the Brewers, scoring two runs in the first, one in the second and third, and then single runs in the sixth and eighth innings. Going into the ninth the Mudhens led 6-0.

With the no outs in the ninth, Maher gave up a single and then walked the next batter. With two men on and no outs, the Brewers’ Chris Clemenson gave them hope with a three-run home run. The score now 6-3, Chris Olean came in to pitch and got the save and the Mudhens a state championship.

The team’s manager and relief pitcher, Olean said the Mudhens were playing their best ball down the stretch into the state tournament.

“We were playing solid baseball all around,” Olean said. “We had pretty good at-bats up and down the order and we’re tough to pitch too with all those veterans. Defensively I wouldn’t call us flashy, but we make all the routine plays and we’re consistent. On the mound we had guys who stepped up.”

Olean said he knew the Mudhens would have an advantage with their hitting, even with Moorhead’s ace Tanner Dahl pitching.

“The pitcher Moorhead threw (Dahl) had thrown two complete, nine-inning games back to back on Friday and only gave up one earned run and had lots of strikeouts,” Olean explained. “They pitched him again today and he looked a little tired and wasn’t as aggressive which helped us.”

The Mudhens’ Deryk Marks came away with the tournament MVP which he proved he deserved when he led Miesville with three hits, two RBIs and was only a single away from the cycle against Moorhead.

Charles Bruchu had two hits while Nate Hammes, Matt Van Der Bosch, Brian Sprout and Jordy Horsch added an RBI each.

Steve Maher pitched eight innings, gave up three runs on six hits with three strikeouts and three walks to earn the win. Olean pitched one inning and gave up one hit to get the save.

“We had a really good group of guys who came together,” Olean said. “A thank you to all of the support staff who helped us and to all the fans who followed us and supported us.”

Miesville finished the season with an overall record of 33-4 and won eight straight games in the playoffs and state tournament to take home 6th state championship in the Mudhens' history.