By Nick Gerhardt
It seems like Bird Island and Hutchinson end up in tight games at the state tournament.
Bird Island needed 21 innings to defeat Loretto in the 2022 state tournament and fell 6-4 to Maple Lake in the 2023 state title game. Last year, the Bullfrogs lost 4-3 to Waconia, the eventual champion, in the quarterfinals. The Huskies opened the 2023 state tournament with a 2-0 win over Fairmont and bowed out in a 1-0 loss to Buckman. In 2022, Hutchinson fell 4-3 to Bluffton in 12 innings. In 2019, four of the Huskies’ four games were decided by three runs or less, with one going 11 innings.
Marcus Hahn’s base hit to left field to score Jake Wendland in the bottom of the 10th inning capped off a wild inning to give Hutchinson a 5-4 victory.
The Huskies trailed 4-3 heading into the bottom of the 10th after Bird Island’s Zeke Walton singled to right field to score Aidan Elfering, who reached on a one-out double.
But Hutchinson got lead-off man Matt Piechowski aboard with a single. A sacrifice bunt moved him to second and a walk to Wendland kept the threat going for Tyler Schiller, who already had two RBI in the game. He delivered a base hit to score Piechowski to tie the game 4-4. After an intentional walk to Lane Glaser to load the bases, Hahn delivered the game-winner.
“We knew we had a fighting chance once we got Matt on,” Hahn said. “The guys put good swings on balls and were patient and let things fall into place and I think we tried to slow the game down and let it happen and not get too caught up in the moment. It worked out nice.”
St. Martin draftee Scott Lieser got the win in relief of starter Zach Kuseske. Lieser went 4 ⅓ innings and allowed one run on five hits. He walked none and struck out seven. Kuseske went 5 ⅔ innings and allowed three runs on six hits, walked two and struck out eight.
Bird Island and Hutchinson traded punches early on. The Huskies got on the board in the bottom of the first inning after Piechowski doubled to the wall in right field and scored on a base hit from Schiller. Schiller finished 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Aiden Elfering responded for the Bullfrogs in the top of the second inning with a line-drive home run to left field to make it 1-1.
The Huskies regained the lead with a two-run third inning that started with Kuseske reaching on an error. A fielder’s choice allowed Piechowski to reach and Jayden Fleck followed with a walk. Wendland singled in a run and Schiller followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to make it a 3-1 game.
Bird Island had a chance for a big inning in the fourth inning after loading the bases with no out, but Kuseske got two pop outs and a strikeout to end the inning.
The Bullfrogs tied things up an inning later when Elliot Serbus drew a lead-off walk and scored on Trent Athmann’s double. Jimmy Woelfel followed with a double to score Athmann and make it 3-3.
“I don’t know if we could’ve drawn it up much better than this with a huge crowd,” Hahn said. “It’s a great feeling for sure.”
Hutchinson will play the winner of Delano-Hinckley next Saturday at 11 a.m. in Hutchinson.
