 The countdown to state baseball begins maybe one of the biggest surprises in class 1A as the Pilger Huskies as Clayton Castle tells us has gotten hot at the right time. Watch out. The Pilger Huskies baseball team is headed to the state tournament for the first time in school history. Oh it feels great. These kids really deserve it. They're riding pretty high after our win Thursday against Walker. We feel terrific, yeah. I'm really excited. My mom's really excited. So and you know we're just relaxed and we'll go out there play our game and get it done. The team got to this point by defeating Walker Hackensack-Akely 13-3 last week in five innings. While runs have been easy to come by for the Huskies it was the defense that really gave the Huskies momentum last Thursday. You know when we had that big out at the plate with that relay there from Braden to Ridge to Ty that was that was a great moment but then when Ridge got to squeeze the glove on that final pop out that obviously sealed the deal and we got to start to celebrate. Despite the big play errors continue to plague the team but the Huskies know they need to clean up the mistakes on defense if they want to have a shot at the title. Definitely just limit the errors because the last couple times we played parkers that who were playing first round we had a couple errors the first two times we played them this year so if we just keep those two minimum we can put up good fight. But for now Ridge is enjoying the ride as a senior making history and leaving a legacy at Pillager High School. Oh it's great it's been a great senior for all sports really and uh yeah if we just keep this thing going it's just it'll just be a great ending to senior year. He and the rest of the seniors will be leading the team to its first state tournament beginning this Thursday when the Huskies take on top seat at Parker's Prairie reporting in Pillager Clayton Castle Lakeland News. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.