Easton Bahr leads off with Bulls’ manager Scott Bahr in the third base coaching box.
Jackson County residents enjoyed some great weather on Sunday for whatever they chose to do to get out and enjoy it.
The Jackson Bulls spent a lot of the day at Wacker Field, picking up two First Nite League wins.
They opened with an 8-3 win over Lakefield and then defeated Worthington 8-2.
"What a beautiful day to play baseball," said Jackson manager Scott Bahr after beating the Cubs in the second game of the day to improve to 4-0 on the young amateur baseball season.
"It worked out great to play two, making up a game we postponed with Worthington on Wednesday.
In their first game of the day, the Bulls did all of their scoring early, putting up three runs in the first inning, three in the third and two in the fourth. The Frogs scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings.
"We hit some rockets early in the game," said Bahr. "Even some of our outs were hit really, really hard so I was excited about that.
"It's early in the season," he continued. "Some of our younger guys are coming in from college so their arms and legs are in shape so we're going to lean on them for a while."
Right-handed pitcher Lucas Gardner, who recently completed his sophomore season at Division I Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, N.C., made his first start on the mound for the Bulls, going five innings. He allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits, walking two and striking out six.
Easton Bahr saw his first action for the Bulls after wrapping up his career at Division III Buena Vista University in Storm Lake. He had three hits and was hit by a pitch at the plate and made several nice plays at shortstop.
Briar Rowley also played at BVU, but was limited two two games as a freshman due to an injury. He had a two-run double, an RBI single and walked.
Evan Olesen completed his sophomore season at Northestern College in Orange City and has been hitting the ball well in the early going of the town team season, as pointed out by the Bulls' Twitter account.
Ryan Rasche had two hits for Jackson including a double and Alex Bretzman also had two hits. Getting one hit apiece were Shad Wacker, Nate Monson and Zach Neal.
Dustin Pronk had two hits for Lakefield. Bailey Lesch had an RBI double and Jared Bakalyar had the other hit for the Frogs.
Scott Bahr said it was a fun game with a lot of familiar faces in both dugouts.
"Everybody knows everybody, they played baseball together or they hang out and golf together. It's kind of what amateur baseball is supposed to be all about, so it's kind of a neat thing," he said.
In the Worthington game, Wacker had two hits including a double and walked once; Andy Wolf had two hits and walked; and Blaise Jacobsen had two hits including a double.
Easton Bahr had an RBI single and was hit by a pitch; Monson had an RBI single; Rowley had a triple and an RBI ground out; Bretzman had a hit and walked; and Payton Handevidt had a hit.
Rasche pitched the first four innings to get the win, Ben Scheevel pitched two innings and Sean Minder one.
Jackson has a nonleague game at Blue Earth Wednesday. Lakefield hosts Heron Lake Wednesday.
Other Sunday amateur baseball scores
Fox Lake 8, Heron Lake 6
Windom 14, Tracy 2 (7 innings)
Milroy Irish 14, Worthington 4
Adrian 5, Mountain Lake 1
Luverne 9, Mountain Lake 0
Luverne 8, Ruthton 6
Hadley 1, Pipestone 0
Closer to record
Rasche's win over Worthington was his second of the season, giving him 69 career wins with the Bulls, which is second on the all-time list.
Tom Hady has the most wins with 72.
On Sunday, Hady picked up his second win of the season with his new team in Shakopee as he pitched two and two-third shutout innings in the Indians' 5-4 win at Red Wing.