Chaska’s Athletic Park hosted the 50th Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association (MSHSBCA) All-Star Tournament from June 20-21.
This was the 30th time Athletic Park hosted the event. Six teams representing unique geographic areas of the state played two other teams to determine seeding for the final round.
Players are nominated by coaches for this select event based on achievements from the recently completed season. Forty-five current or former major league players have participated in this tournament in the past, including Kent Hrbek (Bloomington Kennedy), Joe Mauer (Cretin-Derham Hall), Brad Hand (Chaska), and Matt Wallner (Forest Lake).
Before the all-stars suited up for the tournament, the Minnesota Twins held a youth clinic. As part of their Community Fund efforts, five instructors from the Twins held skill development workshops for infielding, outfielding, throwing, hitting and bunting. For 90 minutes, the Twins staff (with assistance from the all-stars) shared techniques and baseball wisdom for more than 120 area players.
The MSHSBCA event started with a home run derby. Eight players selected based on their 2025 results participated in a contest to see who could hit the highest number of home runs before getting 10 outs. Hunter VaDeer from Lyle-Pacelli won the derby with four points. Carver County was represented by Melvin Maldonado of Southwest Christian.
Game one of the MSHSBCA tournament was a matchup of Metro East and Metro South. The Metro South team included Jacob Welter (Wisconsin-Eau Claire commit) from Chaska, Melvin Maldonado (University of Jamestown commit) from Southwest Christian, Jackson Paumen of Norwood-Young America (Gustavus Adolphus commit), and Isaac Merek (Augustana commit) from Chanhassen. Metro East won the game 6-0.
Game two had North out hitting Metro West and winning 3-2. The Metro West team included Carver County players: Jaren Vogt of Watertown-Mayer (South Dakota State commit), Ian McCrohan of Waconia (Century College commit), and Cameron Dean of Holy Family (Minnesota-Crookston commit). Games three and four had South defeating Metro East 7-1, and North winning again 5-2 over Metro North.
The final qualifying games on a very warm Saturday morning had South defeating Metro South 3-1. Metro West and Metro North played to a 6-6 tie, a first in the history of the 50-year tournament. The tie was called due to the heat and the Metro West and Metro East teams qualified to play each other later in the day as number two seeds.
The third seed game was Metro North and Metro South, with Metro North taking the game 5-0 in a shortened game due to the heat. Second seeds were Metro West and Metro East in a five-inning game, with East winning 6-3 and placing third in the tournament.
South took on North in a thrilling championship game. North jumped out a 7-2 lead after two innings. South started getting runs back with one in the fourth and two in the fifth. North scored a run in the top of the sixth and South got four off of Hunter VaDeer’s game-tying, three-run home run to make the score 9-8 (South) heading into the final inning. North tied things up in the seventh and with two runs in the bottom of the eighth. But South won the tournament 11-10. Lyle-Pacelli VaDeer was named the Dale Welter Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
The entire Chaska baseball community – from youth teams (players and parents) who helped with concessions, the high school team and coaches who helped with field upkeep, the many volunteers who helped with game support and merchandising – made for a memorable tournament for all participants and ensured that Athletic Park remains the ideal location for this showcase of state baseball talent.
