Kimball claims state title with walk-off homer

Scott Marquardt put his arms in the air as soon as he finished his swing. At the time, he didn’t know the ball would land over the left-field fence; all he knew is he hit it hard enough to score his brother, Brooks, from second base.

That swing gave the Kimball Express a championship. Scott Marquardt’s two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth made Kimball a 6-4 walk-off winner over the Lake Henry Lakers in the Class C championship game Monday at The Yard.

It was the first state title for Kimball, in a match-up of teams both looking for their first championship. Marquardt turned on an inside fastball to end an entertaining back-and-forth game that featured four home runs.

The final one, like the others, cleared the left field wall, and Marquardt leapt in celebration down the first-base line as he saw his brother score. The fact it was a home run was just a little extra bonus — driving in Brooks was the important thing.

“I just knew my brother was going to score from second, that’s all I knew, one way or another,” Scott Marquardt said.

Lake Henry won its share of close games to reach the championship. The Lakers started with a 7-1 win over Young America, but then gutted through a 3-2 win over Buffalo, a 3-2 win over Faribault and a 4-2 win over New Prague in the semis to reach their first title game, and brought a huge fan section of support for the championship.

Scott Marquardt was mobbed at the plate after his game-winner and got the water cooler emptied on him soon after arriving home.

It was the kind of moment kids dream of having, and it’s at the top of his list of baseball memories. “There. Yes. That’s the top,” Marquardt said. “There’s nothing that compares to that. Nothing.”