One big inning and solid defense lifted Miesville to an 8-3 victory Wednesday over Red Wing. The win gave the Mudhens a sweep of the best-of-five Section 1 playoff series and a trip to the Class B state tournament.

It is the third year in a row that Miesville has advanced to the Minnesota Baseball Association state tournament and the 24th time in team history.

“The better team won the series,” Red Wing player/manager Corey Tauer said. “... It seems whenever we scored they responded. In baseball that’s so important.”

Luke Rasmussen earned the win, allowing three runs in seven innings. He surrendered six hits, struck out six, walked one and hit two batters.

Rasmussen was not at his best, according to Miesville player/manager Chris Olean, but he was aided by his defense. He received help from Nate Otto in particular.

“Otto made some great plays at short to get Rasmussen out of jams,” Tauer said. “That’s what you have to do to win games like that.”

Andrew Werner pitched the final two innings for Miesville.

The Mudhens offense scored four runs in the top of the second inning to take an early lead. Brian Schmitz laced a one-out double down the left-field line to start the rally.

Red Wing starter Josh Thygesen induced the next batter, Garrett Retka, to hit a groundball to shortstop, but the ball skipped through Kyle Blahnik’s legs and Schmitz scored.

Johnny Camp followed with a single — the first of four consecutive hits for the Mudhens. Next, Dave Johnson drove in Retka with a double.

With the infield in, Evan Lucius hit a groundball past second baseman Adam Thygesen to score Camp. Mike Wilfarht capped the scoring with an RBI single.

The Aces trimmed Miesville’s lead to three in the bottom half of the inning. Jimmy Bohmbach led off the inning with a walk and scored on Paul Hartmann’s sacrifice fly.

The Mudhens added to their lead with two more runs off Josh Thygesen in the fourth inning.

Thygesen allowed six runs (five earned) in 3 1/3 innings. He gave up 10 hits and struck out one.

“Out team offense was very good top to bottom,” Olean said. “We executed on a number of bunts.”

Andy Gibart came on in relief of Josh Thygesen in the fourth. Gibart surrendered two unearned runs on three hits in five innings. Luke Halvorsen pitched the rest of the game.

Tauer hit a two-run double in the sixth inning to pull the Aces (24-18 overall) within three, but the Mudhens scored a run in both the seventh and eighth innings.

The No. 2 Mudhens (38-8 overall) will play in the seeding game Sunday at the highest seed. They will play either No. 1 Dundas or No. 4 Hastings. Hastings leads the best-of-five series 2-1.

Miesville’s first state tournament game is scheduled for Aug. 21 in Gaylord. The Mudhens will play a Section 4B team at either 6 or 8:30 p.m.