Rosemount, Cretin-Derham Hall are among top seeds with brackets set for high school softball state championships

Rosemount, the defending champion in Class 4A softball after going undefeated in 2023, will start the 2024 state tournament as the top seed.

The Minnesota State High School League released the brackets for the four state tournaments Sunday. The top seeds were the Irish in Class 4A, Cretin-Derham Hall in 3A, Randolph in 2A and New Ulm Cathedral in 1A.

Two of the other state champs are back in the field: Mankato East (3A) is seeded third, and Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (2A) is unseeded.

The state championships begin with quarterfinals Wednesday and progress to Thursday semifinals and Friday championship games. The MSHSL is stretching the tournament over three days this season instead of two, relieving congestion that led to all four title games going on at once. The entire tournament will be played at Caswell Park in North Mankato.

Rosemount became a likely top seed when Farmington, first in the final Class 4A rankings produced by the Minnesota High School Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association, lost to New Prague in the Section 1 final. Rosemount was ranked second.

The Class 4A bracket is without half of the final top 10 teams. No. 3 Shakopee, No. 6 Champlin Park, No. 7 Andover and No. 8 White Bear Lake also didn’t survive their section tournaments. That made room for unranked Eden Prairie, Edina and Stillwater.

In Class 3A, Cretin-Derham Hall tuned up for section play with three games against Class 4A teams in the final week of the regular season. The Raiders lost two of those before rolling through early rounds of Section 4 and taking out St. Anthony in the second game of the finals.

The coaches association’s top 10 didn’t fare well in Class 3A either. Six of the teams didn’t make it to state: No. 2 New Ulm, No. 5 Chisago Lakes, No. 6 Mankato West, No. 8 Holy Angels, No. 9 Delano and No. 10 Stewartville.

North Branch brings a 9-13 record to state. The Vikings made the Class 3A bracket by defeating the top three seeds in the first three rounds of the Section 7 tournament.

Randolph, which won its first 23 games this season, is seeded first in Class 2A. Caledonia ended Randolph’s run in the first game of the Section 1 finals, but Randolph clinched with a 6-0 win in the second game.

Class 1A’s top seed, New Ulm Cathedral, is familiar with this week’s venue after winning the Section 2 tournament at Caswell Park.

Class 4A quarterfinals: Wednesday, 10 a.m.

Stillwater (19-5) vs. (1) Rosemount (21-4)

(5) St. Michael-Albertville (18-5) vs. (4) New Prague (19-3)

Eden Prairie (16-6) vs. (2) Forest Lake (18-4)

Edina (16-9) vs. (3) Rogers (19-3)

Class 3A quarterfinals: Wednesday, 12:30 p.m.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s (8-14) vs. (1) Cretin-Derham Hall (18-6)

(5) St. Francis (18-5) vs. (4) Rocori (19-2)

Simley (16-7) vs. (2) Winona (19-4)

North Branch (9-13) vs. (3) Mankato East (17-6)

Class 2A quarterfinals: Wednesday, 3 p.m.

Glencoe-Silver Lake (20-5) vs. (1) Randolph (24-1)

(5) St. Agnes (22-2) vs. (4) Proctor (20-4)

Dassel-Cokato (19-4) vs. (2) Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial (21-2)

Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (19-3) vs. (3) St. Cloud Cathedral (23-2)

Class 1A quarterfinals: Wednesday, 5:30 p.m.

Northome/Kelliher (19-3) vs. (1) New Ulm Cathedral (23-2)

(5) Moose Lake/Willow River (13-10) vs. (4) Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (22-4)

Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley (15-4) vs. (2) Red Lake Falls (22-4)

West Lutheran (17-4) vs. (3) Blooming Prairie (19-5)

Semifinals: Thursday

Classes 4A and 3A, 2 p.m.

Classes 2A and 1A, 4:30 p.m.

Championship games: Friday

Class 4A, 10 a.m.

Class 3A, noon

Class 2A, 2 p.m.

Class 1A, 4 p.m.

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Class 4A | Class 3A | Class 2A | Class 1A

All games are played at Caswell Park in North Mankato

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Cost ranges from $8 to $13. Tickets must be purchased online at mshsl.org/tickets.

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The Neighborhood Sports Network will stream state tournament games. A subscription is required. Link to the streams here.

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The Star Tribune will publish stories and other content related to these state championships and more this week. Keep up by checking startribune.com/preps each day. Thank you for reading and subscribing.