Jackson and Lakefield will both be the higher seed for their first-round Region 13C amateur baseball playoffs series that opens Wednesday.
That means both will play only one of the potential three games in its series at home, but the Bulls do get to open their series at home.
Fifth-seeded Jackson hosts fourth-seeded Hadley at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Wacker Field. Game Two is at Laurie Mahon Field in Hadley at 2 p.m. Saturday and if Game Three is necessary, the Buttermakers would host that at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Sixth-seeded Lakefield meets the third-seeded Milroy Irish in Game One at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at The Irish Yard. The Frogs will host Game Two at Stan King Field at 7:30 p.m. Friday, with Game Three in Milroy at 2 p.m. Sunday if necessary.
Ryan Rasche will be Jackson's starter Wednesday vs. Hadley, but there's a pretty good chance Sean Minder will be on the mound sometime before the game is over.
Minder tied the Bulls' record for pitching appearances in a season Saturday at Tracy. It was his 22nd appearance in Jackson's 26 games this season. which is his second with the team.
"We didn't know if he was going to be a starter or a bullpen guy with us," said Jackson manager Scott Bahr. "I really wanted him to be a bullpen guy. He does a really good job of keeping guys off-balance. He can make his fastball look a little faster with some of his off speed pitches, so I decided to do that and now he's pitched in 22 of our 26 games this year.
I have a lot of everyday guys, like Pat Boggess, Kevin Holm and now Lucas Gardner has kind of turned into that. Sean has just done it all year."
Minder shares the top spot with another left-hander, Tom Schuller.
"Tom Schuller was Mr. Bull," Bahr said. "He was everything for us. He was a starter and he would pitch on Sunday and Wednesday and then turn around and pitch on Sunday and Wednesday the next week.
"And then we got to be good he had a lot of really big games as a starter and then it got to be where he was too valuable so I moved him into the bullpen. He wasn't overly excited about it but then he found out 'hey, I get to pitch every day.'"
And Schuller did pitch in a lot of games.
In addition to the 22 appearances in 2002, Schuller pitched in 21 games in both 2003 and 2005.
"The odds are that Sean is going to break that record and it's going to be tough to beat although the way we manage our staff it's kind of a common deal to get guys up into the teens, Bahr commented.
Holm has pitched in 18 games this year, Boggess 13 and Gardner seven.
Jackson Bulls top single-season pitching appearances
22 Tom Schuller 2002
22 Sean Minder 2021
21 Tim Bird 1995
21 Tom Schuller 2003
21 Tom Schuller 2005
21 Ray Zalabowski 2018
Hadley edged Jackson 11-10 in the lone regular-season meeting between the teams on June 13 in Hadley.
The Irish and Frogs also played once, with the Irish winning 17-4 in five innings in a scheduled seven-inning game on June 6 in Lakefield.
The other two first-round series have top-seeded Luverne playing eighth-seeded Adrian and second-seeded Windom facing seventh-seeded Pipestone.
First-round winners are guaranteed two more rounds as the region will send three teams to the state tournament at Waconia, Chaska and Hamburg.
Following are the first-round series schedules:
4 Hadley vs. 5 Jackson
Wednesday - at Jackson, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday - at Hadley, 2 p.m.
Sunday - (if necessary) at Hadley, 2 p.m.
1 Luverne vs. 8 Adrian
Wednesday - at Luverne, 7:30 p.m.
Friday - at Adrian, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday - (if necessary) at Luverne, 2 p.m.
3 Milroy Irish vs. 6 Lakefield
Wednesday - at Milroy, 7:30 p.m.
Friday - at Lakefield, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday - (if necessary) at Milroy, 2 p.m.
2 Windom vs. 7 Pipestone
Wednesday - at Windom, 7:30 p.m.
Friday - at Pipestone, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday - (if necessary) at Windom, 2 p.m.