Prior to last week, the last game played by the Hastings Hawks was on June 19, a 4-1 loss to the Cannon Falls Bears. The last Hawks win was June 16, a 3-2 road win against the Dundas Dukes. The boys returned to action rusty against Baseball 365 when they lost 5-4 on July 3. That rust carried over to the game at Miesville in an 8-0 loss that included only four Hawks hits. The Hawks now sit at 4-7 in the CCVL and 1-1 against league Class C teams.
The game for Baseball 365 was moved from the week prior to July 3 at the request of Baseball 365. 365 is typically in the hunt for the Class A or B championship. The class changes were due to changes at the state level. Recently, 365 were hit hard with player injuries and the visit to Hastings was in jeopardy because of that.
Scoring in the game was bunched in the middle innings with 365 striking first in the top of the fourth. Hastings answered right back when Drew Jenkins drove in Jackson Tessman to tie the game at one. 365 took the lead 3-1 in the top of the fifth and Hastings cut into that lead in the next half inning.
Jason Greeder, who has been playing exceptionally well both offensively and defensively, was walked with one out in the bottom of the fifth. A perfectly executed hit and run by Jackson Schaffer moved Greeder to third and a sacrifice fly to deep center from Mitch Iliff scored Greeder to set the score 3-2.
365 added one in the top of the sixth and Hastings once again answered, tying the game at four. Jake Sandquist hit the left field gap for a single, Jenkins walked and a wild pitch to Evan Krhin advanced both a base before Greeder hit a solid single to the right field gap scoring both. That was all the offense the Hawks could muster and 365 took the lead for good in the top of the eighth. The game finished 5-4 in favor of the visitors.
The games against Miesville are typically an exciting affair for both teams, this time around, the Hastings fans had little to get overly excited about.
The stat line for both teams looks pretty bleak at first glance. Five hits for the Hens and four for the Hawks seems like a boring game. The issue at hand was Hastings gave up too many free bases from the mound. Six walks and five hit batters was the main story line for Hastings. In the third inning, Hawks starter Jodan Jeske walked two and hit the third batter to load the bases. With two outs, and only two hits for the game, Joey Werner took Jeske deep for a grand slam on the third hit of the game. The Hens had the 5-0 lead after the third inning but only had three hits.
Miesville’s hits were not only very timely, but they were also usually accompanied by prior free bases which allowed them to be very efficient with their hits and scoring combinations. Conversely, the Hawks had 10 total base runners but could not get any accompanying hits to push runs across the plate. Jackson Schaffer is once again finding his groove after having time off due to an injury. Schaffer had two of the Hawks four hits.
Jeske went five innings walking three, hitting five batters and giving up seven runs. Brendan Krueger finished the game for Hastings allowing one run in the 8-0 loss. Cottage Groves Adam Tait earned his second win against the Hawks this season going five scoreless innings allowing one hit with three strikeouts, three walks and two hit by pitch.
The Hawks season does not get any easier before the playoffs start the final week of July. Of the three Class C teams in the CCVL, Hastings currently sits in third place at 1-1. Cannon Falls is in second place at 1-3 because they have an overall better record in the CCVL at 6-7 vs the Hawks at 4-7. Red Wing has the Class C lead at 2-0. Cannon Falls has played all of their Class C games, losing both to Red Wing and splitting with Hastings. Hastings and Red Wing have not played each other this season yet and those two remaining games will be key for playoffs. If the Hawks split with Red Wing, they will be second in the CCVL for Class C. A Hawks Sweep puts them in first place. Alternatively, an Aces sweep puts the Hawks in third place because they only have three CCVL games left, two against Red Wing and one against Class B Rochester Royals who they played Tuesday. We will have that score and recap in next week’s edition.
The remaining regular season games for the Hawks are July 12 home against the Veseli Warriors at 7:30 p.m., July 14 home against the Red Wing Aces at 2:00 p.m. Away at the Aces on July 17 at 7:30 p.m. and finally Rivertown Days. July 19, they host Lyons Pub Warriors at 8:00 p.m. and then on July 20 they are in talks with the Metro Knights to play a final regular season exhibition game. No game time has been confirmed as of press time.