It was a weekend full of baseball, with the Hastings American Legion, Miesville Mudhens, Hastings Hawks, and Prescott Pirates all in action.
It was a walkoff victory for the Miesville Mudhens as they had to manufacture five runs in the ninth to earn a walkoff victory over Lakeville on Sunday winning 6-5 as heard live on KDWA and the KDWA YouTube stream. Miesville fell behind 1-0 early, but answered after a Max Moris single and score on a Ben Vujovich groundout. The 1-1 score held until the seventh when the Loonatics broke through on a two-run single to lead 3-1, and added to the advantage with a two-run homerun to lead 5-1 going into the bottom of the ninth.
Miesville would get the first three runners on base via a walk, hit-by-pitch, and a single, then a sacrifice fly and and error scored two runs as Miesville cut the lead down to 5-3. An RBI groundout by Joey Werner drove in a run to make it 5-4 but put the Mudhens down to their final out. A Ronnie Sweeny double, followed by a Brock Rinehart single tied the game at 5-5, then Luke McNellis hit a walkoff single to complete the five-run inning and keeping the winning streak alive for the Mudhens. Adam Tait got the win on the mound, while McNellis and Alex Hendrickson each got two hits on the day. Miesville is now 25-3 on the season, and will travel to Northfield tomorrow.
The Hastings American Legion took down Eagan in an elimination game Friday afternoon, winning 6-5. Hastings down heading into the 6th inning, but a two-run homerun by Cole Werner put them ahead to get the win. On Saturday, the Raiders needed to win two games to qualify to state starting with Bayport. Hastings got ahead 4-1 after the first inning, and despite giving up three runs by Bayport to tie it in the second pulled away with a run in the fifth inning that allowed them to pick up the win. Cole Werner went 2-2 in the game driving in three runs, and the Raiders won despite being outhit 10-6, Charlie Myers got the win on the mound.
The win set up a win-and-qualify game against Farmington Red, the only team to beat Hastings in the tournament so far. The Raiders ran out of gas against Farmington, falling 10-2. Luke Neiderkorn, Peyton Perseke, Zander McVicker, and Grant Johnson all got two hits on the day for Hastings, but they were unable to manufacture a big inning and fell to Farmington. The loss ends the season for the Hastings American Legion squad.
The Prescott Pirates went 1-1 over the weekend, including a big win over Osceola on Saturday 8-7. The Pirates fell behind to Osceola 7-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth innig, but plated two in the sixth, three more in the seventh, then another three in the bottom of the ninth to walk off the field for the win. Dylan Gausman went 3-5 at the plate, while Brady Block, Joaquin Magee, and Max Monteith each drove in two runs, and Phil Seifert got the win on the mound in relief.
On Sunday, the Pirates fell to the Hudson River Rats 10-1. Hudson jumped out to an early lead and didn’t look back, despite Block earning three hits on the day with Hudson out hitting the pirates 16-6. Prescott is now 12-11 on the season, and will wrap up their regular season against North St. Paul on Wednesday.