A homemade cape with scrawled letters proclaiming Mounds View as the new baseball state champion made the rounds at Target Field late Monday afternoon. The cape, about the size of a small beach towel, got a workout as it made its way from player to player, each time getting ceremoniously tied around his neck in super hero fashion.

The cape appeared on the verge of shredding with each handoff.

But it remained intact, perhaps symbolizing the closeness and tight-knit nature of the admitted rag-tag team of players it was covering.

“We have something special with this group of guys that is really difficult to pinpoint or identify,” senior catcher Lars Anderson said. “From the start of the season, it felt different, a good kind of different. It was one of those feelings that told you something special was going to happen if we stuck together as a team.”

That something special was the school’s first state baseball championship.

For one last time this season, the Mustangs (20-6) put together a one-two punch of dominant pitching and hitting that paved the way for an 8-0 victory over Rocori in the Class 3A state tournament final.

Winning pitcher Max Knutson, the Pioneer Press player of the year, scattered four hits and struck out nine over seven innings. The offense pounded out 14 hits, led by Sam Hentges, who was 3 for 4 with a single, double, triple and two RBIs.

Mounds View won seven of its final eight games and outscored its three state tournament opponents 19-5.

“You never dream a run like this could happen,” coach Jon Nuss said. “You have to beat really good teams to get to this place in the season. I thought we were good, but I didn’t necessarily think we were Target Field-type good.

“If you would have asked me in the preseason, I probably would have told you we weren’t set up for a finish like this. When you start tryouts, you can look around and see that we have a couple of dominant players. But until you go outside, you never know what kinds of pieces you really have. What really solidified us was being so close. Everyone bought in and came together.”

Nuss paid homage to that closeness in his own way during the medal ceremony.

After he was given his blue-ribboned gold medal, he quickly presented it to senior Josh LaValle, who was diagnosed with leukemia last year and unable to play this spring. While not officially on the Mustangs’ roster, the Minnesota State High School League permitted him to be a part of the team this spring. He sat on the bench, cheered and kept score.

“He was huge for us in many ways,” Nuss said.

Knutson did his part with a four-pitch repertoire that had Rocori hitters swinging at air. He pounded the strike zone and got the Spartans to chase pitches outside the zone. Rocori (18-9), the No. 7 seed in Section 8, made it as far as second base just twice.

“We just wanted to do our best to put the ball in play and let them make some errors,” said Rocori shortstop Jeron Terres, who was 2 for 3. “It didn’t work out the way we had hoped. This is still big for us. Going out as the second-best team in Minnesota’s best class is still a really great accomplishment.”

Mounds View got on top early, scoring two runs in the first inning, two more in the third and then four in the fourth to put the game out of reach. Designated hitter Charlie Callahan was 2 for 3, including a two-run single in the fourth. That was plenty of run support for Knutson, who finished the season 6-1.

“I knew from the beginning that we were a championship-caliber kind of team, but you have to spend the season proving that,” said Knutson, who will play at Nebraska. “We grind things out and find ways to win. We came on together in the end and finished it out. Together is the only thing this group of guys knows.”

ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM

Coon Rapids – Tyler Kelm, SS-2B; Logan Shore, P-1B. Forest Lake – Beau Fandel, C. Lakeville North – Zach Creighton, OF-C. Minnetonka – Luke Pettersen, 2B-SS; Jared Ridge, SS-3B. Mounds View – Alec Abercrombie, OF; Sam Hentges, 1B-P; Max Knutson, P; Charlie Callahan, DH. Rocori – Mac Mueller, OF; Reed Phannenstein, P