By Bruce Karnick

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The road to another state title for the Miesville Mudhens started with four games remaining. The first was Friday night against the Anoka Bucs. The Bucs play in the Metro Minny League and were the third seed out of that section for the State Tournament. The Bucs finished the regular season with a record of 77 overall behind the Coon Rapids Redbirds (95), the Champlin Park LoGators (104) and the league champion Blaine Fusion (122).

Anoka defeated Forest Lake in two straight games to punch their state ticket then beat Coon Rapids to leapfrog the Redbirds in the state seeding. In the first round of the state tournament, Anoka defeated Cold Spring Springers 53 to continue in the bracket and become the Mudhens’ opponent.

The AnokaMiesville game started out slow with no runs in the first, but that changed quickly when Brian Sprout stepped to the plate in the bottom of the second. With one on, Sprout hit a tworun blast over the scoreboard in left field to give the Mudhens a lead they would never relinquish.

Austin LaDoux singled in the third with two outs, and then Deryk Marks was hit by a pitch. Ronnie Sweeney knocked a single down the right field line to score LaDoux and the Hens led 30.

Marks kicked off the scoring in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff double, and Cooper Smith came in to pinch run and he scored from third on a Max Gamm RBI single. Sprout continued his domination at the plate and in the stat line when he crushed a standup double off the outfield wall and the Hens were up 50. Sprout eventually scored on a fielding error for the 60 lead. Miesville ultimately scored six in the sixth to go up on Anoka 90.

The Bucs managed to score two in the top of the eighth, but that did not slow the Miesville offense. Joey Werner ended the game early for Miesville for the second straight time. This time Werner hit a threerun blast to give the Hens the 122 victory in eight innings.

Riley Ahern started on the mound against Anoka, and he pitched a solid six innings with four hits allowed and no runs earning the win for Miesville. Hunter Smith took the loss for the Bucs. With the win, Miesville is only three wins away from another state title, but Mother Nature had other plans.

Originally, there were games scheduled for Saturday to determine those moving on to Sunday. Miesville was scheduled to play. That got all washed away with heavy rains. Hastings and Cannon Falls residents were reporting 2.5 to 3.5 inches of rain and more from the evening and overnight storms. That much water and amateur baseball fields do not mix. The facilities are not set up anywhere close to the professional teams with the perfect drainage and mix of dirt as well as the full field tarps.

All of the Saturday games were jockeyed around to Sunday and that plan got shuffled a second time when more rain and clouds hit early Sunday morning. That means the shuffle continues and the hurry up and wait for teams continues. As of press time, the Mudhens game was moved to Friday night with a tentative time of 6 p.m., and they will take on the Blaine Fusion who defeated the Dundas Dukes Sunday evening by a score of 84.

Blaine is part of the Metro Minny League along with Anoka. They were the league champions with a 122 record heading into the state playoffs. Tournament wise, Blaine took down the Sobieski Skis 51 before defeating the Dukes this past weekend. With these two skilled teams, Friday’s matchup should be a fun one.

The final four teams in the Class B bracket are now in double elimination mode so, one loss does not ruin the chances of being state champs. It just makes it much more difficult. The Mudhens could potentially play Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday if there is one loss mixed in the next few games. A side note, two of the final four teams are from the CCVL, Miesville and Rochester. Many in the area believe that the CCVL is one of the toughest and best leagues in the state, and that league is certainly a wonderful asset for the area.

Because the tournament will be completed during this next news cycle, we’ll have a full recap for you in next week’s edition of the Hastings Journal. For the most uptodate details on the schedule changes during the tournament this weekend, follow the Minnesota Baseball Association on Facebook and Twitter.