Former Hastings Raider and current Hastings Hawks pitcher, Will Lavin, joined the ranks of the Northwoods League at the start of the summer. His work on the mound as a Raider and a Hawk led him to several solid seasons at Bemidji State which led to him entering the NCAA transfer portal as a junior and finally a spot on the Rochester Honkers of the Northwoods league. As of Monday, Lavin will have the opportunity to face his Hawks teammate and longtime friend, Blake Warner.

Lavin and Warner grew up about a block from each other and could often be found playing wiffle ball in Warner’s back yard along with other current Hawks players.

Warner received the call at the end of the week last week and had just a few days to prepare to join his new team, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. As of Monday, Warner is a Border Cat.

“It’s my last, final dream and it has finally come true,” said a shocked Warner. “In terms of college players, I’m old and this is the only thing I really had left to do as a college player.”

The Northwoods League is a college level summer baseball league for the top college players across the United States. Many of the players in the Northwoods League are Division I, top end recruits, with aspirations of playing in the Major League. Only current college players are eligible to play in the Northwoods League with just a few exceptions for recently graduated seniors.

Two great examples are Max Scherzer and Chris Sail, two current MLB players that played in the Northwoods League. This year alone, of the 600 players drafted to the MLB, 90 are current or former Northwoods League players.

Warner said the conversations of joining the Northwoods League started months ago.

“It technically started way back in the spring because my college coach is a manager in the Northwoods for a different team. I told him, obviously it is my last year, and I am really interested in playing in that league. He sent texts to other teams about me, including stats and whatever information they needed about me. That is how it all started. My assistant coach contacted me a couple nights ago and told me about a team that was interested in me,” he explained.

Warner played 79 games with Viterbo University over two years. With 247 at bats, Warner had 81 singles, 15 doubles, one triple and 10 home runs with 63 RBIs and 36 runs scored which was good for a .328 average and  .429 on base percentage. In his career with the Hawks he is 92 for 299 and has a .308 average with 51 RBIs.

Beyond the numbers, Warner is a great teammate and mentor to the younger players on the Hawks, and he has coached as part of the Hastings Legion and VFW teams. He has a great baseball IQ and is a great addition to the Border Cats.

“This just validates all the hard work that Blake and Will have been putting in at school and in the summer,” said Hawks manager Shawn Matson. “We are very fortunate to have these guys on our roster and we could not be more proud of these two. We look forward to watching them represent all of Hastings Baseball and we can’t wait to get them back here to play for us when their season ends in August.”

Warner had his passport ready and took off for the six-hour drive on Monday. When he arrived in Thunder Bay, he met his host family who will provide all of his meals along with the lodging he needs to allow him to focus on baseball while in Thunder Bay. The team takes care of travel, lodging and meals on road trips. The Border Cats play against teams from Minnesota - Eagan, Mankato, Duluth, Willmar, Rochester, Wisconsin - Eau Claire, La Crosse and Iowa - Waterloo.

“I’m really looking forward to the experience,” added Warner. “I love playing for the Hawks, but we don’t pull 1000-1250 people every game. The players stay after the game and sign autographs for kids and stuff like that. That is the kind of experience I want.”

The Northwoods season runs until August 12, and the Hawks regular season runs through July 23 with the playoffs starting late July and running to almost the end of August. That means that there is a great chance both Lavin and Warner will be back in a Hawks uniform for the end of the season.

Warner just wants to soak it all in and enjoy the experience of the next month playing with and against some of the top talent from around the United States.

“I’m excited, but not as excited as my dad is,” he laughed.

Probably not as excited as the Hawks board of directors is either. The text chain the board has blew up for a bit discussing the opportunity for Warner. All of the board is really excited for him even if it takes a good player from the team for a month.

Warners brothers are excited for him, too. Both Zach (14) and Adam (10) think it is awesome that their brother has reached such a cool achievement in his career and all three hope to play together as Hawks.

Warner joins a select few for the Hawks to play in the Northwoods League: Mark Moriarty, Spencer Diedrich, Will Lavin, Tony Kaiser and now Blake Warner.

Best of luck to both Lavin and Warner on the rest of their seasons in the Northwoods league!

For more details on the league and for the schedules of possible games to catch either of them a little closer to Hastings, visit northwoodsleague.com