A stretch of five games in eight days is ahead of the Jackson Bulls to end their regular-season schedule.
It starts with two games Sunday in Luverne and is followed by home games Wednesday and Friday and another road contest to close things out.
The Bulls have an 8-2 record and are in a good position to earn one of the five byes available in the first round of the upcoming playoffs.
“I think we’re doing better than we actually thought we were going to,” said Jackson manager Scott Bahr. “We’re now contending for somewhere between the one and the five seed. The top five get a bye and the higher seed the better for a lot of reasons. If we can keep playing like we are I like our chances to compete well in the playoffs.”
The Bulls will play a pair of seven-inning games at Redbird Field in Luverne, facing Heron Lake in a 1 p.m. game that was originally scheduled to played at Wacker Field and then face Luverne at about 3 p.m. in a makeup game from earlier in the season.
Jackson won 29-6 at Heron Lake on June 2.
“We did handle them pretty good but then if you look, like a week later they beat Windom in Windom,” Bahr commented. “And they lost a close game with Fairmont. Heron Lake has more than they showed us last time.”
Luverne has played in the state tournament five straight years and has a league record of 9-2 in 2024.
Flooding from the Rock River made Redbird Field unavailable for a couple weeks, but it’s in use again.
“Good for them, they were able to get their field ready,” Bahr said. “They lost some home games with the flooding, so we wanted to be able to help them out with some concessions, so we moved our game with Heron Lake over there.”
To round out the regular season, Jackson is scheduled to host Fox Lake Wednesday and Lakefield Friday before finishing at Worthington on Sunday, July 14.
JACKSON BULLS SCHEDULE/RESULTS
Sunday, May 19: at Lakefield, W 9-5
Sunday, May 26: Pipestone, W 11-7
Wednesday, May 29: Fairmont, W 5-4 (12 innings)
Sunday, June 2: at Heron Lake, W 29-6 (7 innings)
Sunday, June 9: at Windom, L 8-1
Sunday, June 16: at Milroy Irish, W 9-6
Sunday, June 23: Hadley at Windom, W 8-1
Sunday, June 23: Windom at Windom, L 14-2
Tuesday, June 25: at Fairmont, W 11-7
Sunday, June 30: at Fox Lake, W 2-0
Sunday, July 7: Heron Lake at Luverne, 1 p.m.
Sunday, July 7: at Luverne, 3 p.m.
Wednesday, July 10: Fox Lake, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 12: Lakefield, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 14: at Worthington, 2 p.m.
Standings
First Nite League
Jackson Bulls 8-2 .800
Fairmont Martins 10-3 .769
Windom Pirates 9-3 .750
Lakefield Frogs 4-8 .333
Fox Lake Foxes 2-9 .182
Heron Lake Lakers 2-9 .182
Gopher League
Luverne Redbirds 9-2 .818
Milroy Irish 8-3 .727
Hadley Buttermakers 5-5 .500
Pipestone A’s 3-8 .273
Worthington Cubs 2-10 .167
Saturday, July 6
Hadley at Heron Lake
Sunday, July 7
Heron Lake at Jackson (at Luverne), 1 p.m.
Worthington at Fox Lake, 2 p.m.
Jackson at Luverne, 3 p.m.
Monday, July 8
Luverne at Brookings, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, July 10
Fox Lake at Jackson, 7:30 p.m.
Lakefield at Windom (at Lakefield), 7:30 p.m.
Heron Lake at Fairmont, 7:30 p.m.
Hadley at Luverne, 7:30 p.m.
Pipestone at Milroy Irish, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, July 12
Lakefield at Jackson, 7:30 p.m.
Fairmont at New Ulm Brewers, 7:30 p.m.
Sioux Falls Brewers at Luverne, 7:30 p.m.
Raymond at Milroy Irish, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 13
Milroy Irish at Windom, 2 p.m. (Rec Field)
Marshall at Hadley, 2 p.m.
Sunday, July 14
Jackson at Worthington, 2 p.m.
Lakefield at Heron Lake, 2 p.m.
Fairmont at Hadley, 2 p.m.
Fox Lake at Pipestone, 2 p.m.
Milroy Irish at Luverne, 2 p.m.
