Rogers baseball takes down Hopkins at Target Field

Rogers won 3-1 on Thursday, May 16

by Erik Nelson

Sports Reporter

The sun shined on the players at Target Field on Thursday, May 16, as if both the Hopkins and Rogers baseball teams were being blessed by the baseball gods. In this battle between two teams that share the nickname Royals, Rogers (11-7, 10-1) emerged victorious with a 3-1 win over Hopkins (6-13, 4-7).

This game was the 2024 Minnesota Twins’ High School Baseball Showcase game. Thursday’s game was the only time the 14-year-old stadium will host a regular-season high school baseball game. No high school teams will play on the dirt and grass of Target Field again until the MSHSL state baseball championship games are played in June.

This isn’t the only time that a team from ISD 728 played at Target Field. In 2022, Elk River played Anoka in a 1-0 loss on April 28, 2022.

Rogers head coach Brian Harapat said Thursday’s game was special for the team and Rogers baseball parents.

“It’s a neat opportunity to get to come do this,” Harapat said. “I want to thank the Twins [for] being willing to share the field with us. The guys came out of the gate ready to play and it’s a good thing they did. We had a detailed script of what we wanted to do right. We wanted to get everybody in the game, and we wanted to get everybody opportunities to make plays on the field. It ended up being tight. The guys battled all the way through.”

After Rogers senior pitcher Riane Ritter shut down the Hopkins offense in the top of the first, Rogers scored three runs in the bottom half of the inning. Ritter, Finn Greenlund and Reece Dawson each had RBI singles. Ritter only allowed one run against Hopkins in the third inning and threw a complete game, as neither team scored in innings 4-7.

“Ritter went deeper than we were hoping,” Harapat said. “He had to go, but he did a great job. He did not want to come out of the game. He’s had that circled on his calendar for quite a while since we found out we were going to be playing here. It worked out that it was his turn in the rotation. He wanted the ball and he’s earned the ball. He’s been our horse this year.”

Rogers awaits its seeding in the Section 5-4A tournament which begins on Tuesday, May 28. The Section 5-4A championship game is on Thursday, June 6, at 5 p.m. at the Osseo High School baseball field.