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A seven-game win streak had the Hastings Hawks as the hottest team in the CCVL heading into the Region 5C tournament. If Hastings could have extended that streak to nine games, they would have been at least the two seed from the region and earned a berth in amateur baseball state tournament.

Unfortunately for Hastings (5), they ran into the Cannon Falls Bears (4) for the third time this season and more importantly, they ran in to Bears Ace Keith Meyers. Meyers is a crafty veteran with decades of experience on the mound.

Hastings’ ace, Will Lavin, logged the start on the bump for the Hawks and threw a gem of a game for Hastings allowing only one unearned run. That one run came in the top of the first when he struck out the Aces’ leadoff batter on a wild pitch third strike. The pitch hit the dirt in front of home and bounced passed catcher Jake Sandquist. Sandquist was on the ball quickly but the heavy rain that morning left the ground behind home quite slippery and Sandquist lost his footing, allowing the batter to reach. The next at bat, a hard ground ball was hit down the first base line. Ben Bundschu was in position to catch it but misplayed the hop allowing the second man on. Had both outs occurred as they should have, the inning would have been over, instead, a solid single to left center scored the runner from second giving the Bears a 1-0 lead. That was all they needed.

Meyers and Lavin were both incredible on the mound, fans of quality pitching would have been extremely pleased with this game. The game was pitched so well, it’s unfortunate that either of the starters would have to be charged with a loss and sadly, today’s loss was assigned to Lavin. Meyers held the Hawks to one hit, a single by Bundschu, and earned the complete game, one-hit shutout victory.

The loss put the Hawks on the side of the bracket they did not want to be on. At this point, the remainder of the playoffs is ‘win or go home’. The loss also put Hastings in the 10 a.m. game on Sunday against Dodge County Diamondbacks (8).

With Hastings being the higher seed, they had the home spot on the scoreboard and Jordan Jeske looked to continue his shutout streak on the mound. The game started slowly on the offensive side and remained 0-0 until the bottom of the third. Hastings loaded the bases and with one out, Bundschu hit a sacrifice fly to score Nick Horsch giving the Hawks the early 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, with Jason Greeder on first, Bundschu added to his big weekend with a well hit home run off the light pole in left field. Isaac Flynn followed with a four-pitch walk. That is when Blake Warner came to the plate. Not to be outdone, Warner put a fastball over the right field fence and just like that, the Hawks had the lead 5-0 with two, two-run home runs in the fifth.

In the sixth, Greeder was hit by a pitch, Jeske was walked, Bundschu hit a two out single and suddenly, the bases were loaded again for the Hawks. With Flynn at the plate, a wild pitch squirted past the Diamondbacks catcher, and all three runners advanced a base, scoring Greeder. Flynn popped out, but the damage had been done, Hastings extended their lead 6-0.

Sam Keran relieved Jeske in the seventh and held he shutout that Jeske established. In the eighth, Keran returned to the mound and struggled. A walk, HBP and a walk loaded the bases for Dodge County. Two singles and a sacrifice fly later, and the Hawks lead was cut in half. Thankfully, Keran was able to escape the eighth with minimal damage and a 6-3 lead.

Hastings closer, Andrew Kemper came in for the save in the ninth and the Hawks finished the day with a 6-3 win. The win advances them to play in Red Wing on Saturday the 14th at 1:00 p.m. against Stewartville-Racine, a rematch of the preliminary tournament championship. Hastings won that game 3-0. The winner of that game plays later that night at 7:00 against the winner of Rochester and Cannon Falls who play after the Hawks on Saturday. You can follow the tournament brackets on HastingsHawks.com.

Jake Sandquist quickly grabbed a bunt and tossed to Ben Bundshu at first to get the Bears’ Jacob Christenson out on the sacrifice bunt. The other base runners did advance on this play, but no one scored. Photo by Bruce Karnick