East Ridge, Cretin-Derham Hall Join Baseball Day Minnesota

January 26, 2024
Parker Hageman
Prep Baseball Minnesota

Minnetonka, MN - If you want to talk about high school baseball in Minnesota, it's difficult to leave off the team that has won more state tournaments than any other school.

Cretin-Derham Hall has won 11 titles. Minneapolis Washburn, with their five titles, is the next closest challenger to that. Their all-time state tournament record is 43-9 – an incredible amount of success that spans decades. It certainly helps when your team has such future major league dignitaries as Paul Molitor, Joe Mauer, and Jack Hannahan.

Last season, there were rumblings of reviving the Raiders tradition. They had a new head coach in Buzz Hannahan and a stout lineup with multiple Division 1 commits. Cretin bludgeoned teams in April, starting 8-0 and building solid momentum. They might have made their 20th state tournament appearance had it not been for the East Ridge Raptors. East Ridge, which opened in 2009 – two years after CDH's last state tournament appearance, defeated the Raiders in the section finals.

The two teams would face each other five times in 2023, with Cretin getting the better of East Ridge at the start. After being outscored 31 to 10 in two conference games, the Raptors exacted revenge in the section semifinals, beating the Raiders 7-6. The teams would face each other again in the section championship after Cretin came back through the elimination bracket. The Raiders would blank the Raptors 3-0 to force a second game that East Ridge would win 13-5 and advance to their second state tournament appearance.

(East Ridge would earn its second state title in five years, edging out the Rosemount Irish 1-0 behind a Max Arlich complete-game shutout.)

Without a doubt, these teams needed to bring their rivalry to Minnetonka and Baseball Day Minnesota.

"Baseball Day Minnesota is going to be a great event that will showcase some of the best baseball our state has to offer," said East Ridge head coach Brian Sprout. "This will no doubt be a memorable experience for our players, staff, families, and overall baseball community. We look forward to the opportunity to compete and have fun on the field this May."

"We are very excited to be a part of this inaugural event and represent Cretin-Derham Hall as one of the most tradition-rich programs in the state," echoed Raiders coach Toby Anderson.

Both programs tout numerous top prospects. For East Ridge, Jake Reigert (2024, Ole Miss commit) and Luke Ryerse (2025, Alabama commit) are the number one ranked prospects in their respective classes. Arlich (2024, Texas A&M), the lefty who blanked Rosemount to seal the Raptors' second title, is number four. Cretin, meanwhile, has two top 10 ranked prospects in Jake Quinn (2024, University of Minnesota) and John Henry Kohorst (2025, Iowa), with number 11 in Paul Jones II (2024, Maryland).

East Ridge has the arms, and Cretin has the bats. It's hard not to get excited about this matchup.