Scott Bahr has been through a lot of seasons with the Jackson Bulls.
This is the 39th year of Bulls baseball. And if you figure that Bahr and his mentor, amateur baseball Hall of Famer Tyrone Wacker, have always broken down each year into four seasons, he’s now north of 150 seasons.
This is the 13th time that the postseason has resulted in a state tournament trip for Jackson.
And that’s a feeling that will never get old.
“It’s one of the best,” Scott said after Friday’s 2-1 series-clinching win over the Milroy Irish. “I don’t even know how to say it. You keep talking about different seasons as you progress through the season, early season, mid-season as we start to get better, we have late season and then we have the postseason. You want to get better by July 1 and then get really better by July 20 and you never know will happen.”
One of the great aspects of townball in Minnesota is the combination of players on rosters. There are veterans in their mid-40’s, teenagers, and everything in between.
“We have a nice mix in our dugout,” Bahr said. “We have a lot of guys who have been to the state tournament, and you can see the looks on their faces because you just don’t know when you’ll get there again, and you don’t take it for granted. It’s a really special feeling when you know you’re going to go.
“And we have a bunch of young kids who haven’t been there and I’m excited for the program in the sense that the young kids get to see it so instead of looking around and saying, ‘what are all these old guys talking about?’ Now they’re going to get to see it and I’m excited for that.”
Left-handed pitcher Ryan Rasche, who is the Bulls’ all-time leader in wins, will be in his ninth state tournament.
“I was counting, and I think we have at least 12 guys who haven’t been to one yet,” he said. “They’re in for a treat because it’s always a lot of fun.”
It’s Rasche’s fifth state tournament trip with Jackson. He’s also been to the state tourney as a drafted player four times, once each with Fairmont, Wilmont, Windom and Milroy.
No matter what roster he’s been on in a state tournament, he’s worn a Bulls uniform as that’s the rule, draftees wear their own team uniform.
But Ryan enjoys it when he can look around the dugout and see all the players wearing the Navy and Orange.
“Going with other teams is fun, but it’s always better to go with your own team,” Rasche commented. “We get to do that again this year and we’ll see if we can make any noise.”
This state tournament does feel a little different this year in one aspect.
The Bulls clinched the state tournament berth on Friday and will have at least two weeks before playing a game in the state tournament. It will be three weeks if Jackson wins four more games and two more series to earn the number one seed from the region and a first-round bye at state.
“It’s a little different getting four team instead of three so the next series isn’t win or go home,” said Ryan. “We’ll get ready, try to win that one and go for that one seed. It’s always nice to get a bye that first weekend.”
Jackson will play First Nite League rival Fairmont in a best-of-three series starting Wednesday and then play either Luverne or Hadley of the Gopher League next week as the tourney is played out to seed the region’s teams 1-4.
Here’s the schedule for the next round of the playoffs:
REGION 13C PLAYOFFS
Final 4
Luverne (1) vs. Hadley (5)
Wednesday, Aug. 2 – at Luverne, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 5 – at Hadley, 2 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 6 – (if necessary) at Luverne, 2 p.m.
Fairmont (2) vs. Jackson (6)
Wednesday, Aug. 2 – at Fairmont, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 4 – at Jackson, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 6 – (if necessary) at Fairmont 2 p.m.
Nice catches
It’s been said that 70 percent of the earth is covered by water. The rest is covered by Payton Handevidt.
But centerfielder Shad Wacker covered plenty of ground in Friday’s Game 2, making three nice catches along the way.
Shad started with a catch in left center as shown in this tweet from the Jackson County Pilot:
It looks like Payton may have been surprised that Shad beat him to the ball.
Wacker went the other direction to make a nice catch in right centerfield and then came in on a ball hit to center and made a catch sliding on a knee.
Updated profile
The guy who runs the Bulls’ Twitter account had the profile updated by Saturday morning:
Draft picks
Each of the four teams remaining in the Region 13C Playoffs could draft one pitcher from the eight teams in the region that have been eliminated.
The order was determined by the seed number for the teams.
They are:
Luverne: Collin Lovell, Windom
Fairmont: Ross Ackerman, Windom
Hadley: Luke Gilbertson, Windom
Jackson: Brandan Alfson, Pipestone
The Bulls didn’t get in on the run of Windom pitchers, so we’ll have to settle for the reliving this tweet by the Bulls Twitter account from 2014 paying homage to the 2004 movie Dodgeball:
Great games
Jackson and Fairmont have had some great games and great postseason series with a lot of memorable moments.
For my money, my favorite occurred in Game 1 of this same round in 2014. And before you say anything, no I don’t think my son playing a leading role has anything to do with that, thank you very much.
So, here’s what happened.
The Bulls trailed 2-1 in the fourth inning but loaded the bases with one out. Blaise Jacobsen was on third, Ethan Welter on second and Caleb Rossow on first with Brett Larson batting.
Brett attempted a bunt on the first pitch but bunted it foul.
A few pitches later, with two strikes, Manager Scott Bahr gave the bunt sign again.
As Blaise came down the third baseline toward the plate, a fastball came in high and inside, exactly what the pitcher should do if he’s anticipating a bunt. Brett leaned back a little, put the bat up and got it on the ball and got the ball on the ground up the first base line and Blaise scored to tie the game.
I’ll point out that Fairmont did win that game, but Jackson won two nights later in Fairmont and the Bulls then won Game 3 at home.
One more nugget to add to the mix was that Brett’s best friend for like, forever, Dustin Pronk, had been drafted by Fairmont that year. DD would pitch a gem for the Martins in deciding Game 3 of that series, allowing one run in nine innings. Jackson did win it 2-1 in 10 innings.
State tournament appearances
Here’s the list of state tournament appearances for the four teams that will be representing Region 13C in this year’s event:
Fairmont (23): 1930 A champ, 1943, 1945, 1952 AA 3rd, 1953 AA 3rd, 1959 A champ, 1969, 1980, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2008, 2011, 2012 C 2nd, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 C champ, 2022, 2023.
Luverne (15): 1990, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023.
Jackson (13): 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2023.
Hadley (12): 1940, 1942, 1943, 1945, 2001, 2003, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020
Other notes
Jackson has pitched well in postseason play. The Bulls have only allowed three runs in four games in 2-0 sweeps of Pipestone and Milroy. Jackson pitchers have struck out 40 batters.
Easton Bahr certainly did his job out of the leadoff spot in the batting order for the Bulls vs. the Irish. He was 5-for-6, walked three times, had three runs batted in and scored four runs. In the 2-1 win in Game 2 win he scored one run and drove in the other.
In interleague series in the postseason (First Nite League vs. Gopher League) the FNL leads in series won 4-3 and in games 9-7.
Five teams have qualified for the state Class C tournament, the four teams from Region 13C (Luverne, Fairmont, Hadley and Jackson) and one former Region 13C team (Minneota).
A team Jackson played during the regular season has qualified for the state Class B tournament in South Dakota (there are two classes, A and B). Larchwood will play Wessington Springs at 11 a.m. Saturday at Cadwell Park in Mitchell.
Jackson played three teams from Minnesota in nonleague games. Lamberton is alive in the double elimination Region 2C tournament with one loss. The Long Sox have won two games in the regional, both in 12 innings. The Milroy Yankees have yet to start play in Region 2C and Blue Earth hasn’t started the Region 6C tourney yet.