After looking a little dicey early in the day that baseball would be played at Wacker Field Friday night, the weather cooperated and Jackson would pick up a 10-4 nonleague win over Blue Earth. The Bulls swept the season series from the Pirates, having won in Blue Earth in late May.
"What a great night to play," said Jackson manager Scott Bahr. "We woke up this morning and the field was pretty wet so spent a little time on it and got it ready and then the rain went away and it ended up being just a great night. We talk all the time about how we play these nonleague games to try and get better and it worked out this year that in July we're playing Blue Earth, who is always good; and then we have the Milroy Yankees coming up next week and we also have three league games.
"And the nice thing is that both of those nonleague games are at home. Last year, we were just playing our first home game at this time of the season. The field played great. It's just getting better and better every week that goes by with the underground watering system. We have stuff starting to grow and it's getting back to how we hope it can be in the future."
As can happen with amateur baseball, Jackson's pitching staff was a little thin Friday due to players having other commitments including the Jackson Legion team playing in its sub-district tournament this weekend and balancing that with wanting to have rested arms ready to go for a pair of upcoming league contests.
"We were missing a few pitchers so we treated like an early season game where it was predetermined what the rotation was going to be," Bahr said. "We started with Sean (Minder) and I knew he would throw strikes and get us going the right way and hopefully put up a couple zeros, which he did. And then we came with the youngster, Gabe Wolff in his first outing with us and he did really well for a little bit and got us another inning or two and then we just kind of pieced it together.
"It was great seeing Lucas Gardner go out and get extended. He threw three innings and his arm looked a lot more alive than it has for a while. He's getting in good shape it sounds like. And then in addition to good things from those guys, we were able to keep (Pat) Boggess and (Ryan) Rasche rested and with (Ben) Scheevel not being here we're in good shape for a couple of league games coming up Sunday and Wednesday."
And with all that said, Kevin Holm pitched an inning and two-thirds in the fifth and sixth innings and got the win.
The Bulls scored two in the first and one in the third for a 3-0 lead before the Pirates would pull even with three in the top of the fifth. Jackson would take the lead back with a five-run sixth inning.
"All of a sudden the offense finally clicked and we put up a five-spot and it made it a little bit easier for us, "Bahr said. "It was one of those team wins where everybody did something right and up down the order. And we played defense really well."
Shad Wacker was 4-for-5 and stole four bases for the Bulls.
"I think it's only the first or second time that Shad has hit in the two hole," said Bahr. "We've loved his at-bats and his approach here over the last month or so. I talked with Andy (Wolf) a bit and said I think I'm going to give that a shot and it worked out really well. He not only got the hits, but he ran the bases really well and picked up a few stolen bases and some extra bases sometimes when a ball just barely gets away.
"We try to put a bunch of guys who can run in the top of the order and it worked really well today. We stole a bunch of bases and that's kind of how we're going to have to win. We don't have guys who are going to hit a lot of home runs so we're going to have to steal bases and take an extra base when we can."
Payton Handevidt was 3-4 out of the No. 9 spot. Cleanup hitter Evan Olesen had two hits.
Getting one hit apiece were Chris Gumto, Ryan Rasche, Nate Monson and Alex Bretzman.
Jackson has four regular-season games remaining, starting with a Sunday contest at Lakefield.
After that, the Bulls play Mountain Lake at St. James on Wednesday and then host the Milroy Yankees next Saturday and Adrian on Sunday, July 18.
"We kind of look at it as our playoffs start early," Bahr said. "We're in a spot where we're in a tight race for second place. We need to win these last three league games so it's almost a playoff-type thing. The thing is, we do get to start the playoffs after that no matter how it does go. And besides those league games we have the two good nonleague games."