Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota's Zach Nuy makes a throw from third base during the Mudhens' win over Marshall at K.P. Kompelien Field on July 19.

The Minneota Mudhens have already accomplished plenty this season. If the 14-7 record to date wasn’t already impressive enough, the No. 2 Mudhens took down No. 4 Dumont 7-0 to clinch their first-ever state tournament berth. They’re not done yet, though, as they get ready to host the winner of Dumont and No. 1 Clinton in the Region 9C Championship today at 1:30 p.m.

“It’s kind of one of those things where there’s no pressure on us. We’re already in and the game’s just for seeding,” Minneota manager Tyson Sonnenburg said. “We’d love to walk away as the region champs, but I think when you’re already in that you can just kind of play loose. I think you just play better baseball that way, so I think we should just play loose, have fun, it’s going to be a great day.”

The Mudhens had flown through the first three rounds of the playoffs, outscoring their opponents cumulatively by a margin of 21-1. The last weekend that they played, Danny Hennen pitched a complete-game shutout against Morris and Jake Hennen pitched a complete-game shutout against Dumont. Danny Hennen is expected to pitch in today’s game.

“He deserved it, he’s been our workhorse for a long time,” Sonnenburg said. “Our pitchers have done amazing jobs just keeping us in games and keeping other teams to minimum runs.”

Pitching has been the strength of the Mudhens, but their hitters are far from slouches. Minneota has five players batting over .300 this season and another at .297. Alex Pohlen has led the on-base charge for Minneota at .393.

In terms of power, Danny Hennen and Sonnenburg lead the team in home runs with three and two home runs respectively.

“We’ve really been known for our defense and our pitching, but we’ve also been, I think, second in runs scored in the league this year too,” Sonnenburg said. With all that together, it can result in some pretty good things. So yeah, just kind of stay focused on the task at hand and go play baseball.”

Minnesota’s previous two matchups against Dumont went the Mudhens way. In addition to the tournament win, the Mudhens also got a 2-1 win over the Saints on June 4.

Clinton won the teams’ only previous matchup this year, 8-7. The game was the Mudhens’ season opener and Minneota will look to prove that they’re a better team now than they were in May.

The first pitch of Minneota’s game at K.P. Kompelien Field will be thrown at 1:30 p.m. Dumont and Clinton will play for the chance to face off against Minneota at 11 a.m.