On Wednesday, Park of Cottage Grove and host Hastings mixed it up in a tight thriller, eventually won 3-2 by the Wolfpack visitors in the final game of the regular season.

Monday evening it was a completely different ballgame. Park dominated at Granville Smith Field, easily winning 12-0 in a five-inning rout in the Section 3AAAA quarterfinals.

The Park win sent the large overflow crowd of Memorial Day fans home mostly happy as the Wolfpack advances in section play.

The difference was Park’s hitting was much stronger this time around, said Park coach John McGowan, who is seeing this Wolfpack team rack up perhaps their best season in his 10 years as head coach.

“We had a different pitcher on the mound who threw pretty well, but our pitchers threw pretty well last game, too, (Jackson) Tessman threw really well last game too and so did (Conor) Mestemacher but our guy today threw just as well but I think our bats came alive today for sure.”

The Hastings Raiders could never get anything going against Park senior pitching ace Tucker Novotny. Novotny, bound for the University of Minnesota next season, threw a twohit shutout, striking out nine batters while walking only one in five innings.

Offensively, Park batters rocked a trio of Hasting pitchers for 13 hits in the win. The Wolfpack scored twice in the first inning, and then broke the game open with five runs in the second inning. Park scored four more times in the fourth inning to close out the game “We had a lot of hitters at the plate just attack strikes and put balls in play,” said coach McGowan. “Team effort. It was an overall team effort.”

The Wolfpack had 11 RBIs in the game, led by junior Sam Janski who went 3-for-3 with two doubles and three RBIs and William Smoot who socked two singles and a late home run to grab three RBIs.

“We were hitting the ball well,” said Janski. “Our pitcher really let us play our game at the plate.”

Hastings went with Simon Hedin to start the game on the mound, but he had a rough outing, giving up three hits and three earned runs in an inning and a third of work.

It was the second straight outing for Hedin against Park and the Park batters took advantage of the familiar pitcher.

“We just barreled a few more balls up, saw the same pitcher so it was easier to see the ball and we got barrels on it today and got runners on base,” said Park’s Josh Hatano. “That’s pretty much all you have to do to score runs. It was a great win.”

Conner Stoffel relieved Hedin with one out in the second and didn’t fare any better against the Park batters.

It was one of Park’s strongest hitting games of the season. In addition to Janski and Smoot, Micah Runion was 2-for-3 with an RBI and scored two runs, Benjamin Johnson was 2-for-2 and one run driven in and Joshua Hatano went 2-for-3, both doubles, with two RBIs.

The Wolfpack teed off against Stoffel in the third.

Third-seeded Park (15-6) advances to the Section 3AAAA semifinals and a date against second-seeded Eagan (15-6) at Eagan on Wednesday, June 2, starting at 4:30 p.m. Eagan defeated Burnsville 8-1 Monday to advance.

The winner of the Park-Eagan game will play against on Monday, June 7 at Alimagnet Park in Burnsville, likely against top-seeded and sixth-ranked Rosemount.

Sixth-seeded Hastings (11-10) dropped into the section consolation bracket and will play seventh-seeded Burnsville (7-14) Friday, June 4, starting at 4:30 p.m. The winner of that game will play again on June 7 at Alimagnet Park.

Park senior pitcher Tucker Novotny fires away at a Hastings batter in sectional play Monday. Novotny threw a two-hit shutout for the Wolfpack, striking out nine batters in five innings of work. Photo by John Molene