Given extra opportunities by its opponent, Mahtomedi took advantage.

Josh Donna homered as part of a seven-run second inning, Jack Erickson finished with three hits, and the Zephyrs cruised past Northfield 8-1 Thursday in a state Class 3A baseball quarterfinal.

In the tournament for the ninth time in 10 seasons, second-seeded Mahtomedi gets unseeded Grand Rapids in a noon semifinal Friday at Chaska Athletic Park. The Thunderhawks upset No. 2 Mankato East 4-3. Mahtomedi edged Grand Rapids 3-2 in a 2023 semifinal.

“It’s gonna be fun,” Erickson said.

Austin Felling added a pair of base knocks for the Zephyrs (21-4) who have won nine in a row, scoring double digits in five of them.

“Everybody’s just putting barrels on balls. That’s what’s special about our team,” Donna said.

A pair of Northfield miscues started an onslaught that allowed the Zephyrs to take a commanding 7-0 lead in the second and play relaxed the rest of the way.

Erickson led off with a gift double misplayed by an outfielder. Thomas Becker hit a ball deep in the hole at short and Erickson narrowly beat the throw to third. A throwing error on a ground ball plated Erickson and advanced Becker to third base. He scored on a Carter Schmidtz sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.

Donna followed with a two-run tailing homer that appeared to glance off the scoreboard and fall back onto the field. Amidst some momentary on-field confusion, the senior briefly stopped at second base.

“I was rounding first, and I saw the kid pick it up and throw it in. I thought I had a double but then I looked over at my coach and he signaled for a home run,” Donna said of his second round tripper this season. “I knew I got a piece of it, but I didn’t think it was going to get out.”

An RBI single by Max Strecker plated Gunnar Sather, and Erickson added a two-run triple in an inning the Zephyrs sent 11 men to the plate.

“We talk a lot about those big innings, and we’ve done a pretty good job avoiding that. That one hurt us,” said Northfield coach Josh Spitzack.

Mahtomedi starter Ethan Felling, a Texas Christian University commit, scattered three hits and allowed one earned run in four innings. Andrew Sokoll added two scoreless frames before Strecker tossed a 1-2-3 seventh.

Austin Koep had an RBI double to get Northfield (15-10) on the scoreboard in the fourth, but Felling struck out a hitter with the bases loaded to quash the uprising.

“If we would have gotten a hit in some situations it could have been a completely different ballgame,” Spitzack said.