Cooperstown 2013 - Minnesota Muskies: Trophy Fish - Muskies finish 2nd at St. Paul's Highland Fest

In their first weekend playing together, the Minnesota Muskies brought home second place trophies in this late-season tournament held at the Ford Little League Fields in St. Paul, MN. The Muskies looked as if they played together the whole season behind strong pitching and solid hitting by all the players.

In pool play, the Muskies drew a tough first game against the eventual tournament champion and host team Highland Park. However, the Muskies surged to an early 5-1 lead, holding onto a 7-4 victory. Game #2 in pool play pitted the Muskies against a 13-year-old team from Prior Lake that ended in a forfeit by the Lakers who wanted to guarantee themselves a 6:30 PM game on Saturday. That meant the Muskies earned the #1 seed in their pool and the rest of Saturday off by avoiding an extra pool game.

Sunday proved to be a repeat performance of Saturday's games except this time the Muskies faced the Lakers in the tournament semi-finals. This time the Lakers moved out to an early 2-0 lead. The Muskies fought back and took what looked like a commanding 7-2 lead that crumbled leaving the two teams tied at the end of 6 innings. It took two extra innings for the Muskies to pull off a thrilling and hard-fought 8-7 victory setting up a repeat performance against the Highland Park squad in the championship game.

This time around, the Highland Park scored first and built an early 2-0 lead. The Muskies kept the game close throughout but could not capitalize with runners on base, eventually losing 6-4. The Muskies have a lot of good things to build on for the Cooperstown tournament where they will face equal or higher levels of competition from teams all over the country. Check out the pictures below highlighting Sunday's action: