Pine Island captures 2A baseball title with 2-1 win over Glencoe-Silver Lake

Luke Sems is Pine Island’s leader. He concluded his career in fitting style.

The senior had two hits, scored a run and had the game-winning RBI, leading Pine Island to its first championship with a 2-1 victory over Glencoe-Silver Lake in the Class 2A baseball state tournament finals on Saturday at Target Field.

The victory touched off a wild celebration for the southeastern Minnesota squad.

“I immediately threw my glove and hat in the air,” Sems said. “I almost started to cry but I had to hurry and go jump on the dogpile.”

Rightfully so. Pine Island (23-5) needed extra innings to win its first two games in the state tournament and concluded with another nail-biter.

“We had three heartbreaking games,” Pine Island coach Dan Drazan said. “I am so happy for this group of kids. They have worked so hard to get to this point.”

Drazan’s pitching staff was superb the last third of the season, capped by juniors Alex Knox and Talan Bond in the final. Pine Island only yielded 10 runs during its season-ending 10-game winning streak.

“Our pitching has been phenomenal,” Drazan said. “Our two pitchers today were in full control on the biggest stage.”

Bond earned the save with three innings of work in relief of Knox. Bond induced a ground out to short with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth inning. Glencoe-Silver Lake scored its lone run on a wild pitch in the third.

“It was pretty stressful, but I knew I could get through it,” Bond said. “It was great.”

Sems got Pine Island on the scoreboard quickly. In the first inning, he tripled to the right-center field with two outs. He scored when the next batter struck out swinging on a bounced pitch and reached first on a fielding error by the first baseman, who couldn’t handle the throw to record the final out.

After Glencoe-Silver Lake evened the score, Sems delivered his game-winning, run-scoring single on his next at-bat.

“We worked as a team to achieve our goal,” Sems said. “This is so satisfying. Amazing.”