Jun. 9—SLAYTON — Gabe Tentinger’s father Adam was a senior on the Murray County Central baseball team when it last went to state back in 2001.
25 years later, Tentinger, himself now a senior, has helped take the Rebels back for only the second time in school history.
They have gone through the season with just one loss and rolled through the Section 3A playoffs en route to the State Class A Baseball Tournament, which is set to begin this week at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud.
As the No. 4 seed in the tournament, MCC’s first test in the quarterfinals will be fifth-seeded Ogilvie Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
“It’s just crazy that it has been 25 years, because we’ve had good baseball at MCC for a lot longer than that,” said Rebels head coach Paul Counter. “But there’s good baseball down here, good section. Our youth programs right now are really thriving, and hopefully it just really helps everything.”
The Lions hail from Section 4A who possess a 19-6 record this season. They won their first three section playoff games to make the championship series before dropping game one to top-seeded West Lutheran. They bounced back to win game two 8-4 to clinch their first section title in school history.
Ogilvie will be going against a Rebels team that returned nearly every player from last year and was determined to finally get over the hump.
The Rebels were the No. 1 seed in the Section 3A south sub-section each of the past three years but didn’t advance past the quarterfinal round.
In 2024, they lost to eventual section champion Lac qui Parle Valley in the quarterfinals and then to rival Adrian/Ellsworth in the elimination bracket. Last year ended with losses to Yellow Medicine East in the quarterfinals and Minneota in the elimination round.
But this year’s Rebels were not going to come up short again and it showed in a dominant section playoff run.
They started with an 11-1 win over Minneota in the first round before winning their final three games by shutout. First was an 8-0 win over Yellow Medicine East, then came a 4-0 win over Dawson-Boyd to advance to the section title series.
Just one win away from the section title, MCC faced Adrian/Ellsworth, one of the few teams that tested the Rebels a bit during the season. But thanks to a fast start at the plate along with solid pitching from Krew Schneider, they won 7-0 to achieve a goal they had set at the beginning of the season.
“We had everybody back except for one person and we gained Krew back to pitch,” Tentinger said. “We had a rough ending last year. We had the same (record), only one loss in the regular season last year, and then we came out the same this year, so (motivation) was pretty high.”
Meyer is one of many talented Rebel players from all over the field. He is a pitcher and outfielder who has been one of the team’s best arms all year. Schneider has also been a good option on the mound and he is one of their best at the plate.
There are solid hitters up and down the Rebel lineup, including catcher Dugan Kluis, first baseman Danny Larson, second baseman Carson Lewis, shortstop Tristan Behrends, third baseman Cayden Veldhuisen, left fielder Carter Hanson and Tentinger at right field.
The Rebels are also a strong veteran group that appears to be playing its best baseball at the end of the season, both recipes toward a potential state tournament run.
“They stayed together, they stayed hungry, they wanted it, and it’s (the) ultimate goal, and they just played their best at the right times and found a way to get it done,” Counter said.
Many of the same players who led the baseball team to state were also part of the football team that played in the state semifinals at US Bank Stadium in the fall.
“I said from the start of my senior year, it’d be pretty awesome playing US Bank Stadium and Target Field, so that’s my personal goal, but I think that’d be pretty fun,” Meyer said.
The winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup will play either No. 8 New York Mills or No. 1 Madelia Friday back at Joe Faber Field in the semifinals. The loser would fall to a consolation bracket. The state championship game will be Monday, June 15 at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.
Thursday, June 11
No. 7 Janesville-Waldolf-Pemberton vs No. 2 Red Lake County
No. 6 Brandon-Evansville vs No. 3 South Ridge
No. 8 New York Mills vs No. 1 Madelia
No. 5 Ogilvie vs No. 4 Murray County Central
