August third and fourth will be a historic moment for the Hastings Hawks and Veterans Park Baseball field. It will be the first time hosting a part of the amateur baseball state qualifying tournament for the Classic Cannon Valley League and Twin Rivers League who make up Region 5C. Red Wing and Cannon Falls have been hosts of the tournament for at least the last decade plus, but renovations at John Burch Park in Cannon Falls has opened the door for Hastings to shine.
It has been a long road to reach this point in Veterans Park history. The park was built and ready for the start of the 1982 inaugural Hastings Hawks season and over the course of more than four decades, there have been a lot of games played at that field. For a long time, the field was maintained strictly by city staff. As Hastings began to build more and more parks to care for, the usage of Vets changed and the visions of what the park could be changed. That vision grew with each Hawks Board of Directors but until recently, those board members were limited in what they were allowed to do. That all changed with the hiring of Parks Director Chris Jenkins in 2013.
The Hawks Board and the City of Hastings Parks Department have built a great partnership over the last 11 years and the trust between the two groups really shows at the baseball field. Teams all across the region have taken notice and the Hawks have helped host a number of quality tournaments over the past several years.
The Hastings Legion team just won their Substate Tournament to go to the Legion State Tournament, Great Lakes Baseball Academy has held part of their fall tournaments the last four years at Vets and now, the Minnesota Baseball Association (MBA), the association that runs the largest amateur baseball league in Minnesota, is hosting the Region 5C tournament at Veterans Park.
“The whole process for hosting regions started as discussions that go back a few years ago when we as a team were discussing goals and things that we wanted to see happen out at Vets. With renovations going on at Cannon Falls this seemed like a good time to throw our name in the hat,” explained Hawks Manager Shawn Matson.
“Our goal is to get to a point where we are able to be a host site for the MBA State Tournament. That will take a lot of time, work, patience and money to achieve, but I believe we can get there. Having a successful regional weekend will be a huge step in proving what we are capable of,” said Hawks President Bruce Karnick.
With these goals in mind, the Hawks as a team have taken on more responsibilities each year on the field maintenance side. The team handles the grooming of the dirt infield, the maintenance of the mound and home plate areas, almost all of the maintenance of the grass to dirt transitions and they mow all of the grass inside the field. There are other aspects that the Hawks are learning and working with the city on such as filling in and levelling the grounds, irrigation and chemical treatments such as fertilizing and weed control. All of these aspects of field management go beyond the basics of raking and mowing and help dramatically improve the playing surface for both the regular season and bigger and better tournaments.
Last year, nearly 30,000 people attended the MBA state tournament games logging a sizeable chunk of revenue for the towns that were hosts.
The state tournament hosting site process is much like the Olympics. Teams and towns submit applications to host the tournament for the top 64 teams of the 280 teams in Minnesota. The hosting of state usually requires three to four sites. In 2022, Miesville, Dundas and Faribault were host sites for the games and Vets Park was used as a warmup site for the teams playing in Miesville.
The regional tournament is decided by the teams in the region. There are three weekends for the Region 5C tournament, Red Wing hosted the preliminary bracket last weekend, the quarter and semi-final rounds of the tournament will take place over this weekend in Hastings with the Finals taking place next weekend in Owatonna and Red Wing. There are eight teams vying for two entries into the state tournament which will be held in Green Isle, Jordan, Belle Plaine and Shakopee this year.
The semi-finals teams are the Hastings Hawks, Red Wing Aces, Cannon Falls Bears, Stewartville-Racine Sharks, Plainview Bucks, Pine Island Pioneers, Wanamingo Jacks and Austin Greyhounds.
The games are scheduled for 10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday at 10:00 is Stewartville-Racine versus Plainview. Red Wing versus Cannon Falls is the 1:00 game, Wanamingo and Austin play in the 4:00 timeslot and Hastings versus Pine Island will be the 7:00 game. The Sunday schedule all depends on who wins on Saturday. The four teams that play at 10:00 and 1:00 will play in either of those two slots on Sunday and the teams that play at 4:00 and 7:00 will play in those two slots again on Sunday.
Because of the size of the tournament, a large portion of Vets Park will be blocked off Saturday Morning until Sunday night to allow for paid entries and parking. It is possible the entire park will be closed to the public to allow ample space for parking. The closure will not affect the use of the soccer fields or fields three and four, but parking for residents not attending the tournament will need to take place on Enterprise Road. The baseball field along with fields one and two as well as the batting cages will not be available for public use until after the tournament ends.
The cost to attend each day is very family friendly. Adults 18 and over are five dollars, ages 12-17 is two dollars and under 12 is free. The Hawks will continue their foul ball reward of 50 cents for the retrieval of foul balls that get out of play. Concessions will be open the entire tournament so no outside food or beverages will be allowed.
This week will be a busy one for the Hawks and the city as one last push is made to get things just perfect at Hastings’ hidden gem. Expect to see a lot of action Friday for the final prep day and of course, even more during the weekend long tournament.
If you are interested in volunteering or sponsorship opportunities this weekend, email president@hastingshawks.com otherwise make sure to get out and see some excellent baseball in a very fun environment this weekend.