The One That Got Away The one that got away!

By Derek Simon By: Derek Simon

Friday night, July 24th the Hawks faced off against the Lake City Serpents. The game was a home game for the Serpents, although it was played at Vets Field in Hastings, due to construction on the Serpents home _eld in

Lake City. The Hawks had previously won 8-4 earlier this season against the Serpents. A win or a loss by 3 runs or less would mean the Hawks would have a home playoff game on July 29th. A loss and the Hawks would travel for a road game.

The Hawks would turn to veteran Nick Horsch on the mound. Horsch had previously started in Miesville giving the team a chance at an upset win. Lake City would turn to Jacob Duden to start for the Serpents.

Over the previous _ve meetings, the

Hawks had won three times against the Serpents. Friday night however, was the perfect storm. The Hawks struggled in all phases of the game losing convincingly 12-2 in seven innings.

The Hawks went down quietly in the _rst

inning. The Serpents came up in the bottom of the _rst and uncharacteristically Jake Dale and Blake Warner, two great _elders,

both made errors that would have gotten the team out of the inning. Instead Lake City

would score three runs in the _rst to take the

lead.

The Hawks would get one run back in the second inning. Blake Warner would drive in Joey Muerer to close the lead to 3-1. It was Warner’s team leading _fth RBI of the season and helped to make up for the error in

the _rst inning. Horsch would then get out

of the second inning without giving up a run. It would be the only inning of the evening where Lake City did not score.

After the Serpents increased the lead to 5-1 after three innings, the Hawks would get an unearned run when Jordan Jeske stole third base and scored on an error getting the Hawks back with in three runs at 5-2. With two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, Hawks skipper Shawn Matson would come to the mound to take out Horsch. The Serpents were able to get to Nick by scoring six runs, three earned in three and two thirds innings. Nick gave up nine hits while striking out two and walking just one.

Dennis Reinhardt would come into the

walk none. Max Bunschu finished out the game on the mound, unfortunately it would be his worst outing of the season as he did not retire a batter.

The Hawks have upgraded their defense the past two seasons and have been adding to their pitching staff, but the surprising issue of the 2020 season is the offense has disappeared. Friday night again the boys struggled to score runs or even get hits. The team would for the second straight game, score just two runs. They only get five hits, two by rookie Isaac Flynn. The Hawks had two errors on the evening, but also a lost ball in the lights that also produced a run. While the Serpents pounded out seventeen hits and twelve runs. They did make three errors, but the Hawks only were able to score one run on those errors.

With this loss, the Hawks will need to win in a big upset at Red Wing on Sunday the 26th to have a chance at another game at Vets Field this season. Red Wing is undefeated in section play with all but two of their wins coming by mercy rule. One of those games was a 11-3 win earlier this season in Hastings.

The committee’s three stars of the game:

•Isaac Flynn 2-4 on the night.

•Jordan Jeske 1-3 with one run scored.

•Dennis Reinhardt 2 1/3 innings 2 runs 4 hits 2 strikeouts.

Aces edge Hawks in 10 innings

by Johnny Stocker

The COVID shortened season was at a crossroads for the Hastings Hawks. The team was coming off their worst performance of the season so far in a mistake filled ten run loss to Lake City on Friday night, and were turning around two days later for a game on the road against the first place Red Wing Aces with the playoffs looming. An upset victory could vault the Hawks into a home game to kick off the playoffs. A blowout loss could mean a team with shaken confidence heading out on a long road trip. Sunday afternoons 6-5 ten inning loss to the Aces was something of a mixed bag, but did tell us one thing for certain. This team isn’t done fighting yet.

The Aces, having clinched first place in the CCVL C division coming into the game started pitcher Marcus Walm in place of staff ace Aaron Johnson. The Hawks countered with Jordan Jeske, the veteran who was getting his second

Aces edge Hawks in 10 innings, playo_s start Wednesday By Johnny Stocker The COVID shortened season was at a crossroads for the Hastings Hawks. The

pitching appearance and first start of the year. It was a shaky start of the game for Jeske, who walked the first 3 batters of the game, and 5 total in the first inning. Fortunately for the Hawks, a baserunning blunder by the Aces Brady Schroeder and a heads up play by Hastings catcher Noah Paulseth led to Schroeder being picked off of third, and held the Aces to 2 runs in the first.

Things then got quiet for a bit, with Jeske settling into a bit of a groove and Walm retiring the first 9 men he faced. Finally in the 4th inning, the Hawks got something cooking. Once again it was standout rookie Isaac Flynn leading off with a sharp single and immediately stealing second base to get Walm into the stretch and out of his rhythm. Jeske walked with one out, bringing up Hawks vet Adam Medlicott. Meds, who had started the season in an 0-10 slump chose the perfect time to get his first hit of the season with a booming RBI double to the left centerfield gap. Later with the bases loaded and 2 outs, the Baseball Gods smiled on the Hawks. Cory Wolters cracked his bat on a roller that went right underneath the glove of a diving Walm for a 65 foot RBI single that tied the score. A pitch off Paulseth’s helmet and a quick walk to Jason Greeder extended the lead to 4-2, and ended Walm’s day. Fortunately Paulseth showed no ill effects from the beaning and remained in the game. Ben Kuehni came in to relieve Walm, and got the third out of the inning.

After Jeske put up a zero in the fourth, the Hawks touched Kuehni for one more. Drew Davis lined a sharp single to start the inning, and set out to steal second. The stolen base was negated when Kuehni hit Jeske with the pitch, so Davis instead stole third base on the next pitch, reaching easily. After Medlicott got his second RBI hit in as many innings to drive in Davis, the Hawks were able to get no more as the next three batters were retired in order.

Jeske ran into control problems once again in the 5th. Four more walks and a single to lead off the inning would end his day and bring in veteran Rick Wagner to try to work out of a major jam, with the game now 5-4, the bases loaded and nobody out. After hitting the first batter with a pitch to tie the ballgame, Wagner did a marvelous job wriggling out of the jam, getting the next batter to roll softly to short with a pulled in infield allowing the Hawks to cut down a runner at the plate, and then got a double play liner right at second baseman Jason Greeder to end the frame.

Pitching took over for the next few innings. After his shaky first inning, Kuehni buckled down and shut down the Hawks, and a combination of Wagner and a returning Ben Bundschu did the same to the Aces. We reached the 9th

still in a 5-5 game, when outstanding defensive plays by each team sent us into extras. Leading off the 9th for Hastings, Will Lavin took advantage of his first at bat of the season, lashing a shot to right center that looked destined to be a double. Aces centerfielder Brady Schroeder scooped up the ball on the run, spun, and fired a perfect strike to cut down Lavin and prevent the Hawks from getting a man in scoring position to open the 9th. Then in the bottom of the inning with Aces catcher Dixon Irwin on first, Josh Thygesen sliced a shot into the right field corner that looked for all the world like a game ending RBI double. However Nick Horsch, playing on an injured foot that had him in a walking boot before and after the game raced to the corner, and threw a perfect relay to first baseman Flynn, who cut down Dixon at the plate by 5 full steps.

After the Hawks went down in order in the top of the 10th, they got themselves into trouble in the bottom of the inning with a mental error in the field. Brady Schroeder led off with a single, then was bunted over to second by Brodie Smith. Third baseman Cole Benson made a clean throw over to first to record the out, but nobody rotated over to cover the base behind him and Schroeder alertly advanced to third. After Hastings intentionally loaded the bases and Bundschu induced a popup to get the second out, Dixon Irwin made up for being thrown out at the plate by hitting a long walk off single just over the outstretched glove of centerfielder Wolters to end it.

So once again the Hawks play a solid ballgame against a good team, but come up on the wrong side of the ledger. We’re continuing to see that they can compete with every single one of their Class C rivals, but just haven’t managed to get enough hitting this year, with the team sitting at a paltry .204 batting average in their shortened 2-6 regular season.

The good news? Everybody is now 0-0 again as we head into the Class C playoffs. The Hawks will travel to Waseca on Wednesday to play a first round playoff game, then will head to Red Wing or Cannon Falls over the weekend to continue in an 8 team, double elimination tournament with the top three teams advancing to the regional finals. The Waseca game will be over by the time this goes to press, but you can find live broadcasts of this weekend’s games at Hastingshawks.com. Follow our twitter handle @HastingsHawks or the Hastings Hawks Facebook page for game times and details.

Three Stars:

•Adam Medlicott

•Rick Wagner

•Isaac Flynn

out. After hitting the _rst batter with a pitch to tie the ballgame, Wagner did a marvelous job wriggling out of the jam, getting the next batter to roll softly to short with a pulled in in_eld allowing the Hawks to cut

down a runner at the plate, and then got a double play liner right at second baseman Jason Greeder to end the frame.

Three Stars: Adam Medlicott Rick Wagner