By Bruce Karnick

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The Miesville Mudhens finished first in the CCVL for the regular season again this year with a record of 11-4, 23-7 overall. Three of those losses came early in the season’s first four games. The first game of the season against the St. Anthony Hogs 9-5, then the Hastings Hawks 8-2, both at home, and the Red Wing Aces 3-1 in Red Wing.

After starting the season 1-3, the Mudhens went on a seven-game winning streak, outscoring opponents 70-8 with four of the games being shutouts. A 5-0 loss to the Elko Express broke up a potential 17 game winning streak because Miesville bounced back and won another nine in a row until the Rochester Royals defeated them 5-2.

Heading into the playoffs, Miesville faced Dundas in a three-game series. Game one of the series went the way of the Mudhens, 11-2. The Dukes took game two 8-3 forcing game three back at Miesville where the home town team won 8-5, securing the number one seed out of section 1B.

This is where things get a bit hairy for Class B teams. The Class B State Tournament runs three weekends and was held in Hamburg, Waconia, and Chaska. The first two games of the bracket are single elimination. Win or go home. Miesville defeated Chaska 9-0, then East Grand Forks 12-2, the New Market 8-1 to reach the double elimination portion of the bracket.

The Mudhens needed the double elimination piece to stay alive after a 3-2 loss against the Chanhassen Red Birds. They faced the Champlin Park Logators Saturday night in Waconia in a drama filled game. The Mudhens were down 1-0 until the fourth when Joey Werner singled, stole second then scored on a Matt VanDerBosch single. They then waited until the sixth to take the lead 3-1. The Logators closed the gap in the seventh 3-2 and then made it 3-3 in the eighth. Werner put one over the fence to make it 4-3 Miesville but then had a throwing error in the ninth allowing Champlin Park to tie the game. Jake Smith and Max Moris played hero, winning the game for Miesville when Moris drove in Smith for the final 5-4 score.

Sunday, the Mudhens faced the undefeated Chanhassen Red Birds once again. Needing to win two in a row against the Red Birds, the Mudhens had a lot of work ahead of them. The first game was Sunday at 7:00 p.m. and if needed, game two would have been Monday.

Chanhassen took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third and Miesville scored two in the top of the fifth for their only lead of the game 2-1. Werner came up with the bases loaded, knocking a ground ball to the second baseman who tried for the double play. The relay to first was not in time allowing Werner to reach on a fielder’s choice and scoring Max Moris. Van-DerBosch hit a single scoring Ben Vujovich before the side was retired.

The bottom of the fifth, Chanhassen regained the lead for good, scoring four. The Red Birds added one in the seventh and three in the eight to win the Class B championship for the fourth straight year with a score of 9-2.

Tournament awards were given out at the end of the game. All-Tournament team winners were VanDerBosch, Werner, Moris, and Riley Ahern. Werner was also given the Silver Slugger Award which is given to the best batter of the tournament. Werner hit .348, 8-for-23, for the tournament with six RBI, four extra base hits a triple and a home run. His slugging percentage was .652 and on base percentage was .462.

Town baseball is officially over for the 2021 season. Now teams will go into planning mode for the start of the 2022 season. Recruiting, scheduling, fundraising and more is a huge part of the offseason. Best of luck to all the CCVL teams next year!