By Bruce Karnick

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The Class B and Class C State Amateur Baseball Tournament opened this past weekend in Dundas, Faribault and Miesville. The Mudhens took first in the Classic Cannon Valley League with a 930 record, earning the number one seed in the Section 1B tournament, which they also won. The Rochester Royals finished second, Dundas Dukes third and the New Market Muskies fourth.

A total of 16 teams began the state tournament with the first game Friday Night in Miesville. The Mudhens played host to the Prior Lake Jays. Prior Lake took the lead in the top of the first scoring one, but Miesville evened the score in the bottom of the first. Ben Vujovich singled to lead off then stole second and third which allowed him to score on a Deryk Marks single.

In the bottom of the second, Charley Hesse hit a solid double to center, advanced to third on a stolen base and was knocked in by Josh Hawksford to give Miesville the 21 lead.

The bottom of the third is when things really opened up for the Mudhens. Joey Werner was walked, followed by Austin LaDoux. Marks flew out to left and Max Gamm hit a single loading the bases. Hesse came to the plate and crushed the second pitch he saw over the right center wall for the grand slam. Reports were, it took 10 kids a solid 15 minutes of searching to find the ball in the cornfield, but that could be a tall tale from the press box to enhance the narrative from yarn to fable.

With Miesville leading 61, things settled down on the field for a few innings, but then Mother Nature stepped in. Radar indicated a potential for heavy rains. A few soaking rain clouds travelled over the field but nothing gamestopping, yet. Prior Lake finally managed to get to Riley Ahern on the mound, loading the bases in the top of the sixth. But in the process of opening up offensively, the skies also opened up and caused a rain delay.

It was déjà vu for the Mudhens explained Manager Matt Vanderbosch.

“It’s a little challenging, we kind of lose the momentum from the previous start. Actually, it is kind of the same scenario that we had last year. We played first at Chaska Friday night and that got rained out. We had to come back and finish it on Sunday,” he said.

The biggest difference this year? The continuation started much earlier. They were scheduled to play at 7 p.m., but the games of the day delayed that start to almost 9 p.m. Last year, it was more weather that delayed the games. It rained enough to push the game back to after 10 p.m. last year, which means the guys were experienced in the latenight continuation.

Back to the present, with the postponement, the game resumed with Prior Lake batting. The Jays continued with bases loaded and two outs on the scoreboard, and the Mudhens continued with an Ahern on the mound, but this time it was Shannon. Ahern sat the Jays batter down in three pitches ending the threat.

“We knew that that at bat was going to be a turning point here,” explained Vanderbosch. “We went with Shannon who is one of our vets. He's been in those situations before, so I figured he'd be the best fit to handle that. He got a strike out there and that was a big weight off our shoulders, and then we can just finish the game from there. That was probably the biggest turning point of the game, it was definitely tonight’s biggest play.”

Miesville went on to add one in the bottom of the sixth to make it 71. The seventh proved to be interesting for the Mudhens. Score four and the game is over, and that vibe was carrying through Jack Ruhr Field. Somehow, fans knew a mercy rule win was coming. Hesse led off with a walk and Brock Reinhart followed suit. With runners on first and second and no one out, Max Morris hit into what should have been a double play but ended up being a fielder’s choice and an error on Prior Lakes second baseman. That allowed Hesse to score from second.

A balk moved Morris from second to third and a single by Vujovich scored him to make it 91. Brian Sprout flew out for the second out of the inning and that brought Werner to the plate with Vujovich on first. Werner hit the third pitch perfectly. The crack of the bat said “home run” but the Niebur sign in left field put a stop to that. The ball caromed off the sign behind the over pursuing left fielder back into the field of play. He recovered well and threw to third in an attempt to get Werner out. Vujovich scored on the play and the third baseman was unable to handle the errant throw. The error allowed Werner to continue on to score which gave the Mudhens the 111 win in seven innings.

“It’s nice to get through the first one with this portion of the tournament being single elimination,” added Vanderbosch. “We have another single elimination game Friday against Anoka. We’ll get geared up for that and see where we fall.”

The key for all the teams at this time of year is, how many of their guys are they losing with them going to college. Miesville has lost three so far, which changes the depth of their bench. Two are expected to be platooning back and forth for the tournament according to Vanderbosch who is hoping for no surprises on the roster front.

Miesville is four wins away from a state title and that trip continues Friday, August 26 at 7:30 p.m. against Anoka Bucs. The game is currently expected to take place in Miesville. If that changes, we will update readers via the Hastings Journal Facebook page and on www.HastingsJournal.news.

Joey Werner celebrating with the team when he scored the game winning 11th run after nearly hitting a home run. The hit caromed off the Niebur sign in left field to score one run and Werner was able to stretch a double to third on the throw in from left, which also forced the error to allow him to reach home for the game winning score. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Shannon Ahern pitched the final 1-1/3 inning, shutting down the Jays including the final out of the sixth inning where Prior Lake had bases loaded with two outs to resume the postponement.

Photo by Bruce Karnick

Prior Lake’s shortstop is forced to make a leaping catch when the player of the game Charley Hesse stole second in the bottom of the seventh inning. Hesse earned player of the game for his first inning double, third inning grand slam and single in the bottom of the seventh, which helped lead Miesville to the 11-1 seven-inning win. Photo by Bruce Karnick