The Hasting Hawks are eight games into the season and after two big Class B games, they are now sitting at 3-5. The season opened with three straight losses to the Crystal Cowboys, Northfield Knights and Hampton Cardinals. The first win came in a rain shortened game to the Austin Bluejays and that was followed by another loss to Northfield.
On May 22, Hastings traveled to River Falls to take on the Fighting Fish and for a major part of the game, they had the lead largely due to the pitching of Ben Bundschu. Bundschu kept the Fish befuddled at the plate and the Hawks bats came alive to score seven runs early in the game. Once Bundschu was out, the Fish took advantage of the relievers and clawed their way back to tie the game, eventually taking the lead and they won 9-8 to give the Hawks their fifth loss of the season.
The Hawks had little time to lick their wounds from getting hooked by the Fish with the Dundas Dukes coming to town on May 24. The Dukes are perennial Class B state tournament entrants and a historical thorn in the Hawks side, but not this time.
Hastings jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Ben Teigland singled up the middle to be the Hawks first base runner of the game. Recent Viterbo graduate Blake Warner followed Teigland, hitting a single in his second game back in a Hawks uniform. Mitch Iliff, also making a return from college, singled to left scoring Teigland and moving Warner to third. Noah Paulseth, fresh from his season in Eau Claire, walked to load the bases.
Former Raider and fan favorite Jake Sandquist struck out for the Hawks second out of the inning but that brought Jordan Jeske to the plate who crushed a double to right to bring in Warner and Iliff for the final two runs of the inning.
Dundas wasted little time in the second and they quickly tied the game at three. The Hawks then regained the lead in the bottom of the third inning. Warner hit a double to left field and Iliff hit a hard ground ball through the legs of the first baseman for an error and an RBI. Iliff stole second during Paulseth’s strikeout and then scored when Sandquist one hopped the right field fence for a double and the Hawks were quickly up 5-3. The third inning sequence ended up being the difference in the game.
Hastings scored five more in the sixth inning with RBIs going to Warner, Iliff, Sandquist and two to Bundschu to go up 10-3 but Dundas answered with five of their own in the top of the seventh. That was all of the offense for both teams and Hastings walked away with a monster upset 10-8.
Jordan Jeske earned the win with six innings pitched where he struck out six, walked six and allowed six earned runs on 123 pitches. Dennis Reinhart earned the 2-out save for Hastings. Both Warner and Iliff went 3-for-5 on the night. Warner had one RBI and Iliff had three. Sandquist, Jeske and Bundschu each had two RBIs in the win.
The win brought the Hawks to 2-5 on the season but more importantly, gave them a 1-3 record in the Classic Cannon Valley League with a second CCVL game scheduled for May 26 at Hampton.
The trip to Hampton is always a fun one for the guys. Hampton and Hastings have a travelling trophy to honor former manager and board member Wayne Erickson. The trophy spent the last year in the Hawks club house until Hampton won it back in the beginning of May.
Hampton starting pitcher Jack Nelson had a rough time with the Hawks hitting four batters in the first inning to give Hastings a 2-0 lead. His struggles continued into the third inning where he walked seven more extending the Hawks lead 7-0. Cory Wolters singled Jason Greeder in the sixth and Iliff continued to knock the cover off the ball hitting another double in the seventh inning which scored Evan Khrin for the final Hawks run of the day.
Hampton managed to scratch two runs across the plate throughout the game but starting pitcher Ben Teigland kept the Cardinals off balance all game long. Teigland faced 29 batters in eight innings which is only five more batters than the minimum he could face. His control and mix of pitches allowed only six hits and no walks while he struck out five and the Hawks defense was superb behind him.
Some other notable stats, Jordy Horsch reached base four times, two being hit by pitch. Cole Benson was 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored. Iliff was once again spectacular at the plate going 3-for-5 with two doubles and two RBI. Sandquist and Wolters each reached three times with Wolters adding two RBIs and two stolen bases.
The Rochester Royals paid a visit to Veterans Park on May 29. This game started out to be a good one until the umpiring began to play a major role in the outcome. Rochester has been a state tournament team on the class B side of things for the past several years, and they showed why against a really scrappy Hawks lineup. The Royals scored one in each of the first three innings, but Hastings fought back to tie it in the bottom of the fourth at three. The Hawks then added two in the fifth to lead 5-3. The Royals answered back tying the game again in the top of the sixth and Hastings took the 7-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth.
That is when things went crazy. The strike zone had already been shrinking all night, but in the top of the sixth, Hawks pitchers Jordan Jeske and Brendan Krueger combined for 59 total pitches, 29 balls and 30 strikes. Normally at this level of play, it is a minimum of two strikes for every one ball and it is usually two and a half to one. It happened to both teams and over the course of the game, a total of 408 pitches were thrown by seven pitchers and the ratio of strikes to balls was 1.18 to one.
The problem for Hastings was that Rochester was able to capitalize on the issue and Hastings was not. Rochester scored nine in the top of the sixth to go up 14-7. They tacked on one in the eighth to finish the game 15-7. After the game, no one was pleased with how it got there. Hastings scored seven runs on two hits and Rochester had 13 hits.
The Hawks then traveled to Cannon Falls on June 2 for a Class C tilt that has a large bearing on the playoff seeding. It was clear Hastings was fired up to play the bears for the first Class C matchup of the season. Hastings won this contest 14-4 in seven innings.
Up next is the Hudson River Rats on Friday, June 7 at 7:30 p.m. and the big Miesville rivalry game at Hastings on June 12th, also at 7:30 p.m.