MINNEAPOLIS — The Red Lake County baseball program is the Minnesota Class A state champion for the first time in program history.

On Saturday morning, the No. 5 seed Rebels beat No. 2 New Ulm Cathedral 15-7 in the championship at Target Field in Minneapolis.

Red Lake County, which hadn't appeared at the state tournament since 2015, had never advanced to a state championship game. The Rebels beat the No. 4, No. 1 and No. 2 seeds to win the tournament.

The Rebels dominated early against New Ulm, jumping out to leads of 5-1 after one inning and 9-1 after two innings.

The top four hitters in Red Lake County's lineup — Will Gieseke, Gunnar Halverson, Ben Gullingsrud and Kegan Schmitz — combined for nine hits, 10 RBI and 11 runs.

Gullingsrud, a freshman, started the Rebels' rally in the first when he smacked a two-run triple as part of a five-run first.

The Rebels finished off a wild tournament that included a 10-run rule victory in the state quarterfinals, followed by a win in the state semifinals in nine innings in a game that started in St. Cloud and ended in Alexandria.

In the 4-3 win in the semifinals over No. 1 Parkers Prairie, the game was delayed after eight innings. Although Red Lake County gave up a late run to send the game to extras, Red Lake County snagged momentum when the game was moved to Alexandria.

After scoring a single run in the top of the ninth to take the lead, the Rebels finished off the state title berth on a game-ending double play started by third baseman Owen Chervestad.

Gieseke, who dominated in the quarterfinals to set up the usage in the state title, finished with 6.2 innings pitched against New Ulm. He gave up five earned runs and struck out six.

Gieseke, Schmitz, Colin Taggart and Gullingsrud were each named to the state all-tournament team.

Schmitz tied a state tournament record with six RBI in the title game. He was 3-for-4.