ROCHESTER — The Rebels earned a trip to the Class ‘A’ state baseball tournament with a 2-0 win over Hayfield in the Section 1A title game in Hudson Field Tuesday.

Southland (24-2 overall) will now head to the state tournament for the first time in school history. The Rebels, who have won 21 straight, will begin state play June 12 against with a location and opponent to be determined.

“No feeling like it,” Rebels pitcher Kody Retterath said of the win. “No feeling like it.”

To end the game, Retterath had to retire an old teammate. Retterath forced Hayfield’s Darin Wagner to ground out with a runner on second in the top of the seventh inning for the final out. Wagner played All-Star baseball with Retterath as a youth and the two will play together this summer on the Austin Athletics.

“Going into that inning all I said was ‘just get Darin to the plate.’ He’s can be the equalizer with one swing,” Hayfield head coach Craig Selk said. “But I knew (Kody) wouldn’t back down, even if his dad (Southland head coach Scott Retterath) told him not to pitch to him.”

In fact, Scott Retterath had thought of walking Wagner, who hit two homers on Saturday, to get to eighth grader Steve Serratore. But he had faith in his team.

“We were thinking about walking (Wagner),” Scott Retterath said. “I didn’t want (Kody) to make a mistake and let him tie it up. But there’s four seniors on that infield so I gotta trust them a little bit.”

After the game was scoreless for three and a half innings, Southland scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris May. Southland scored again in the sixth on an run-scoring single by Mitch Nagele.

“It was nice to get the lead,” Kody Retterath said. “ Then you look up at the scoreboard and it’s the sixth inning and one more inning and we’re safe. Then we got another run in the sixth and that helped a lot. Our defense played a little more relaxed.”

The Rebels had the bases loaded with no one out in the fourth after Kody Retterath reached on a misplayed pop fly by Hayfield and Winston Smith and Josh Bamrick each reached on errors. But the Vikings (12-13 overall) allowed just one run as senior pitcher MacEagon Voyce pitched his way out of the jam.

“The first two times we played Southland, we had what we called the meltdown,” Selk said. “You could see it coming (tonight) but MacEagon just bailed us out and he hit spots.”

In the sixth inning, Southland second baseman Winston Smith made a big play when he made a diving stop on a grounder off the bat of Voyce to stall a possible Vikings rally.

“I wanted to try to knock it down at least and I was successful in that,” Smith said. “I rushed it a little, but I made the stop and got it to first for the out.”

The Vikings stranded a runner on third in the inning and Kody Retterath said the play was a lift to the team.

“Winny’s play behind me was great,” he said. “He made that stop and that was a big momentum changer.”

After losing out in the Section 1A playoffs last season, the Rebels now know what it’s like to clinch a state berth.

“I’m sure it won’t sink in for a day or two,” Scott Retterath said. “But it’s gotta be an amazing feel for the kids after being so close last year.”

For Hayfield, they can feel satisfied with there postseason run and a strong finish against the Rebels.

“We played one of the state’s best teams really close. I think (Kody) and Brian (Voigt) are gonna go pretty far in state,” Voyce said.

Hayfield beat Chatfield (16-11 overall) in an elimination game by a score of 10-0 in five innings to start the day.

The Vikings scored six runs in a third inning that saw 12 batters take the plate.

“I was kind of surprised,” Selk said. “They weren’t throwing strikes but sometimes it’s even harder to hit in that situation. We just locked in and the bats got rolling. I asked one of the umpires if we could transfer some of our runs to the next games, but he wouldn’t let me.”

Southland 2, Hayfield 0

Southland pitching: Kody Retterath (W), 7 IP, 2 H, 3 BB, 0 R, 6 K

Southland hitting: Matt Schroeder, 1-of-2, 2 BBs, SB; Jake Chapek, 0-of-2; Brian Voigt, 0-of-3; Derek Emanuel, 0-of-3; Kody Retterath, 1-of-3; Winston Smith, 1-of-2, double, BB; Josh Bamrick, 0-of-1; Mitch Nagele, 1-of-3; Chris May, 0-of-3, RBI

Hayfield pitching: MacEagon Voyce (L), 6 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 2 R, 1 ER, 6 K

Hayfield hitting: Darin Wagner, 0-of-4; Steve Serratore, 1-of-3; Tyler Krekling, 0-of-2, BB; MacEagon Voyce, 0-of-3; Derek Petersen, 0-of-2, BB; Travis Kauffman, 0-of-3; Ben Pollock, 0-of-2, BB; Tyler Nelson, 1-of-2; Mark Evjen, 0-of-2

Hayfield 10, Chatfield 0 (5 INN)

Hayfield pitching: MacEagon Voyce (W), 5 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 0 R, 3 K

Hayfield hitting: Darin Wagner, 1-of-3, BB; Steve Serratore, 1-of-2, RBI; Tyler Krekling, 1-of-3, RBI, BB; MacEagon Voyce, 1-of-2, double, RBI, SB; Derek Petersen, 2-of-3, triple, 2 RBIs, SB; Travis Kauffman, 1-of-2, 2 RBIs, BB; Ben Pollock, 1-of-2, RBI; Tyler Nelson, 2-of-3, RBI; Mark Evjen, 1-of-1, double, RBI, 2 BBs

Chatfield pitching: Phil Bray (L), 2 IP, 3 H, 5 BB, 7 ER, 1 K

Chatfield hitting: Bryan Neis, 0-of-2; Phil Bray, 1-of-2; Mitch Obey, 0-of-1, BB; Tyler Chase, 0-of-2; Kevin Allen, 0-of-1; Dustin Priebe, 1-of-2, double; Michael Bell, 0-of-2; Nathen Vogen, 0-of-2; Ryan Stevens, 0-of-2