The Hastings Hawks amateur baseball team had a big weekend on June 7 and 8. Saturday morning started with the opening day for HYAA’s in-house baseball and softball teams where the entirety of the in-house teams were introduced before the day long schedule of games at Veterans Park. After the littlest of the t-ball and softball teams were done playing in the outfield of Vets Baseball Field, the Hawks took over for a 3:00 game against the Minneapolis River Rats with the Hawks winning that contest 10-6. The Hastings Hurricanes took to the field after the Hawks against the South Metro Saints, winning that 14-5 to end the day. Sunday, Baseball 365, a top five ranked team in the state, paid a visit to the Hawks for the 2:00 start. The Hawks fell in that game 11-6.
Verusus Minneapolis
The River Rats came to town as part of the full day of events at Veterans Park and the Hawks wasted little time dive bombing them enroute to a 10-6 win. The Rats jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning against Jordan Jeske on the mound for Hastings. The bottom of the first was an offensive explosion for the Hawks, scoring five runs.
Jordy Horsch kicked the offensive explosion off with a single and a stolen base, then Mitch Iliff walked, Kelin Rasmussen singled to load the bases and Jack Seleski singled to drive in Horsch. Max Krebs struck out and Max Kaplan singled to score Iliff and a throwing error on the right fielder allowed Rasmussen to score. Johnny Teigland singled scoring Seleski to give the Hawks the 4-2 lead. A wild pitch during Cory Wolters’ at bat scored Kaplan to put the Hawks up 5-2.
The scoring slowed for Hastings, but not for Minneapolis. Jeske struggled on the mound and that allowed the Rats to score two in the second and two in the third to go up 6-5. Gavin Odman had just begun to work as Jeske’s relief when a 45-minute rain delay kicked in. Since the game was exhibition, the two teams agreed to shorten the game to seven innings. Odman returned after the rain delay shutting down the River Rats bats.
Hastings tied the game in the bottom of the third when Wolters walked, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch then scored on a second wild pitch.
The Hawks took the lead for good in the fourth inning. Jack Seleski hit a hard grounder toward first base and ended up being the poster child for why you always run hard to first base. You never really know how a play will develop and Seleski’s hard-hit ball caused the first baseman to make an error, allowing Seleski to reach. That error then started a three run fourth for Hastings. Krebs walked, Kaplan hit a single scoring Seleski and a passed ball advanced both Maxs’ a base. Krebs scored on a grounder by Taylor Pagel. Another Hawks rookie entered the game, Zach Simon was brought in as a courtesy runner for Pagel at first and he quickly stole second. The steal forced the River Rats catcher to rush his throw, forcing an error that scored Kaplan from third before a pop fly ended the inning with the Hawks up 9-6.
The final insurance run came at the bottom of the sixth inning when Jason Greeder pinch hit for Krebs, logging a single. Kaplan then crushed a double to the fence in the left center gap scoring Greeder from first. That double was also the first Applebee’s 2-for-26 promotional double of the game. Hastings Applebee’s has provided coupons to the Hawks to give away anytime a Hawks player hits a double or better, enhancing the already fun atmosphere at Veterans Park.
The double capped off the 10-6 win for Hastings. Odman earned the win in the outing and his final line shows four and two-thirds of an inning pitched. He faced 16 batters striking out five and walking one with no allowed runs. That performance earned him the Hawks Player of the Game honors.
In a game that showed flashes of consistency but lacked pop, the Hawks combined for 10 hits on 29 at-bats, posting a respectable .345 average, but with zero home runs and no extra-base threats beyond a single double from Max Kaplan. The offense scratched across 10 runs, leaning heavily on singles (9 total) and taking advantage of 7 walks and 2 errors to manufacture scoring chances.
Kaplan led the charge, going 3-for-4 with a double and 3 RBIs, while Kelin Rasmussen added a clean 2-for-4 performance. Jack Seleski and Jordy Horsch chipped in with timely hits, and Jason Greeder made the most of his lone plate appearance with a hit and a run scored.
Despite there being only one extra base hit, the boys scratched enough singles together to put together an impressive 10-6 win.
Versus Baseball 365
Baseball 365 out of Bloomington was next on the schedule. 365 is currently ranked as one of the top three teams in Class A and they showed why on Sunday. Hastings managed to score early and keep a lead behind the arm of Ben Teigland, but that changed quickly in the seventh inning. By then, 365 had seen Teigland three times through the rotation but were only able to scratch three runners across in six prior innings. That all changed in the seventh. By the time the top of the seventh was done, the Hawks were down 11-3. 365 scored eight runs in the top of the seventh to take a commanding lead.
The Hawks clawed three more runs across to cut into the deficit but that was all they could rally for. With the exception of one bad inning, Hastings was in control of the rest of the game, unfortunately, eight runs is really difficult to overcome in most games, especially in one inning.
The highlight of the game for the Hawks came in the bottom of the eighth inning. With Greeder on first, 16-year-old Zach Simon had his second at bat in a Hawks uniform, subbing in for his unofficial big brother Cory Wolters. On the mound was Division III, Gustavus Adolphus’s junior left-handed pitcher Jackson Thielen. Simon blooped the first pitch he saw over the third baseman’s outstretched glove for his first ever hit for the Hawks and all of his “big brothers” on the bench erupted like they just won the championship. Simon eventually made it to third base and his hit helped put Greeder in scoring position, allowing him to score later in the inning, but he did not score a run himself.
The 11-6 loss to one of the best Class A teams in the state, while disappointing, showed that Hastings has come a long way in a short time and they proved they are not going to go down without a fight.
Up next
Hastings will host the Hampton Cardinals on June 11 with the Wayne Erickson Memorial Trophy on the line then they travel to Dundas on June 13, both games are scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start. On June 15, they travel to Rochester to take on the Royals at 2:00 p.m. before returning home to host the Burnsville Bobcats on June 18 at 7:30 p.m.