For the second straight year, Jackson had its amateur baseball season end at Laurie Mahon Memorial Field in Hadley as the host Buttermakers scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to edge the Bulls 10-9 in the deciding game of their best-of-three Region 13C amateur baseball playoff series.
Also for the second straight year, Hadley was the number four seed in the region and Jackson was the number five seed.
“I know that there are some people who were upset about seeding,” said Jackson Manager Scott Bahr. “If you don’t think these were the four and five seeds and we were dead even, then you weren’t here. I think you’re being disgraceful to a whole bunch of players who showed up here these three days.
It also shows the importance of the regular season. I know we beat them, but Hadley had one more win than us. They had two losses to number one Milroy, two losses to number two Luverne and then the loss to us. We had one bad loss. Mountain Lake is a good team, but it was a game we were favored in and we should have won. If we would have won that game then Game Three would have been in Jackson. Would it have been different? I like to think so, but you have to play the game.”
With its skin infield, 285-foot distance down the left field line and a crowd five times the size of the 2020 census population of 56, Hadley is not a friendly venue for visiting teams.
“Playing in Hadley is tough,” Bahr said. “It’s the biggest home field that I’ve ever been a part of in amateur baseball. You know that in May you don’t want to be playing the playoffs in Hadley. But good for Hadley. It’s a home field advantage and they take use it.
“They hit a ball 289 feet for a home run and there was the two plays at the plate, but we have to put the balls in play hard too. We had the same opportunities they did. I sure would have loved Game Three to be in Jackson.”
The Bulls ended their season with a 19-11 record.
The Buttermakers advanced to a Region 13C Final Four series vs. the top-seeded Milroy Irish.
Milroy won the opening game of that series 1-0 in a pitcher’s duel between a pair of Windom draftees as Collin Lovell got the win for the Irish and Luke Gilbertson taking the loss for Hadley.
Luverne won the opening game of the series over Fairmont 12-2 in eight innings