Rangers softball tabs fourth consecutive state berth

FL clinches section title over Andover

In what’s seemingly become a trend over the last handful of years, the Forest Lake softball team is back at the Class AAAA state tournament. The Rangers sealed their bid for their fourth consecutive state appearance by winning the Section 7AAAA title on Thursday, May 30, in a 4-3 defeat of Andover.

“We always want to make it back – because you obviously have to make it back to have a chance at a 4A title,” head coach Sean Hall said. “Andover gave us everything we wanted. They played great against us and so we feel really fortunate to be here again and to be able to have a crack at getting another state championship.”

Leading up to the 2024 season, Forest Lake finished as the Class AAAA runner-up to Rosemount in the previous year, after the Rangers won the state championship over Brainerd in 2022 – with the girls falling to Rosemount in the 2021 title game.

The squad entered the section tournament as the No. 1 seed in Section 7AAAA, as the Rangers received a first round bye after their dominant efforts in the regular season, finishing with a 15-4 overall record. The Rangers hosted the Anoka Tornadoes at Sand Creek Athletic Complex on Saturday, May 25, where the girls walked away with a strong 12-1 victory.

Later that same day, Forest Lake then matched up with the Andover Huskies – who were the No. 2 seed – and the Rangers secured a 7-5 win to send themselves back to the Section 7AAAA championship game. With Andover ultimately going on to win the elimination bracket, it allowed for a rematch between the Rangers and Huskies for the right to go to state.

Hall reflected on how they prepared for Andover not only once, but twice.

“You’re always concerned with things going wrong, but we had a good idea of what they were going to try and do to us, and the same goes to them,” Hall said. “We jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead, they battled back to make it interesting at the end, but Hannah [Tong] was able to pitch through it to get those last couple of hitters out.”

Hall discussed the takeaways and lessons learned from the last year’s state run.

“That’s one advantage that we have on our side, is the experience of just being here before. A lot of these kids have played in the state tournament before,” Hall said, noting that Tong and Avery Muellner have each pitched in three state tournaments leading up to this year’s berth.

“They’ve been there, they won’t be in awe of what they are seeing or anything, they know what it’s like. And to me that’s a huge advantage for us heading in.”

The Rangers will face the Eden Prairie Eagles in the opening round of the Class 4A tournament, as Forest Lake earned the No. 2 seed. The Eagles post a 16-6 overall record heading into the matchup, which will take place at Caswell Park in Mankato on Wednesday, June 5, at 10 a.m.

Hall explained the main message he plans to tell his girls before they start their state tournament siege.

“We just got to compete,” Hall said. “They should be used to the atmosphere down there. Teams are going to try and go out there and get us. We just have to go out and play Ranger softball, hit the ball, and play good defense. Hopefully we can create some havoc and put some pressure on these other teams.”