By Ryan Simonson
MBA Contributing writer
Buckman is a town of about 330 residents in north-central Minnesota located roughly seven miles south of Pierz and 18 miles southeast of Little Falls. Its ballpark, affectionately referred to as “Beer Cap Stadium,” is located on Ball Park Road, just on the west side of Hwy. 25 as you enter the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it town from the south. You’ll recognize it from the sign on the outside of the right field fence celebrating the 1999 state champion Billygoats, the modest wood grandstand, the skinned infield, and the raucous crowd of Buckman baseball faithful filling the seats with their bodies, voices, and noises from cowbells and homespun chants.
Roughly an hour to the north is Nisswa, a resort community in the heart of the Brainerd chain of lakes, with a population of roughly 2,000 that fluctuates wildly between the summer boom months and the frigid winter ice fishing season. The Lightning play their home games at Nisswa City Park, a dusty field mostly known for bordering Ye Old Pickle Factory, a local bar and grill with an outdoor seating area where you can watch the Lightning through the center field fence while being served cocktails. The scoreboard isn’t visible from that side of the park, though, so you may have to yell to an outfielder for a score update.
Both teams play in the Victory League — traditionally as Class C clubs, but newly promoted to a Class B distinction by the state’s criteria points system. They see one another routinely during the regular season and generally cross paths again during the regional playoffs, both vying for the top seed to state.
In addition to their 1999 state championship, the Billygoats have also appeared in the state tournament every year since 2017 (except 2021) — finishing third in 2019 and ‘23 and second in 2022. The wives of Billygoat players don’t make plans for Labor Day weekend.
Similarly, the Nisswa Lightning have been perennial entrants into the state tournament over the last two decades, winning the state title in 2022 by driving three hours south to defeat their league rivals — the Buckman Billygoats — in Faribault. In 2025, they advanced to the Class B state championship game, where they were defeated by Delano.
Destiny, or the 2026 state tournament schedule, would once again bring them both south to the same park, though not as opponents on this occasion. The Billygoats squared off against the Red Wing Aces in the day’s second scheduled game, followed immediately by the Lightning’s duel with the Le Sueur Braves.
Buckman 6, Red Wing 4
Under a bright and cloudless late-summer sky, the visiting-seeded Billygoats faced off against the Red Wing Aces and their ace, lefty Aaron Johnson. The notoriously hard-swinging Billygoats came ready to play, attacking pitches and putting balls in play right out of the gate, pushing two runs across the plate in the first inning with a combination of well-struck singles and a pair mishaps by a Red Wing defensive unit that seemed unready for the opening salvo.
Finding themselves in an immediate hole, the Aces’ bats came out cold, and they were retired in order by Buckman starter Matt Tautges on a quick 11 pitches.
Buckman was unable to pick up where it left off in the second and third innings, as Johnson and Tautges combined to retire 18 consecutive batters before Matt Kummett got the Billygoat offence going again in the top of the fourth with a sharp single. Another hit, two hit batsmen, and another Aces error later, Buckman had pushed the score to 5-0 entering the home half of the inning. That’s when the Red Wing bats finally woke up, with Reid Hartmann driving in a run with a double, then coming around to score himself on a Dixon Irwin single.
The Aces got back on the board in the fifth — with Nick Azar doubling and later scoring on a productive groundout — and again in the sixth, as Marcus Walm loaded the bases with an audible broken bat single, followed by an Adam Thygesen sacrifice fly that cut the Buckman lead to 5-4.
Andrew Ball replaced Johnson in the seventh and Buckman’s Andrew Rueckert welcomed him with and RBI single to score Lane Girtz after unsuccessfully attempting to call time-out. An insurance run at the time, it would be one more than Buckman would need, as Tautges returned to cruising speed, shutting the Aces down in the final three frames for a complete-game victory.
Girtz and Rueckert each had a pair of hits and an RBI for the Billygoats. Tautges struck out eight in his complete game, walking two.
Reid Hartmann and Nick Azar both had doubles for Red Wing.
Buckman advances to face St. Martin on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 4 p.m., in Shakopee.
Nisswa 3, Le Sueur 1
In the final game of the weekend at the Mini Met, the 2025 Class B runners-up Nisswa Lightning played visitors to the 2025 Class C runners-up Le Sueur Braves, promoted up a class for the new season. And like their Victory League brethren, they would waste no time getting on the scoreboard against a power lefty, flooding the bases with runners and scoring two runs on three hits while taking advantage of two generous Le Sueur errors, putting starting pitcher Logan Feeney in a hole before a Brave could step into the batter’s box.
Much like in the earlier game, Nisswa starter Isiah Biehn rode the momentum of the early offensive production to a streak of shut-down innings, keeping the Braves off the board — and largely off the bases — through the first four frames while his own offense went suddenly quiet.
Le Sueur cut the 2-0 Lightning lead in half with one swing in the bottom of the fifth, as Bryce Novak crushed a solo homerun to get the Braves on the board.
While the Lightning Lumber Company remained sedated offensively, Le Sueur added some scattered hits to some defensive miscues to fill the bases with Braves in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings against Nisswa portsider Blaine Hardy — twice loading the bags — but were each time unable to bring home the tying run.
Nisswa struck again in the top of the seventh, with pinch hitter Ty Wittwer chipping a hard grounder off the third base bag to drive in Colbe Tappe.
Down to their last out, Le Sueur’s Tristin O’Brien sliced a single to reach base in the bottom of the ninth, but was stranded there to end the game.
Leadoff hitter Kody Ruedisili led Nisswa with two hits, both doubles. Drew Boland drove in a run for the Lightning.
Bryce Novak had two hits, including his home run, for Le Sueur. Burke Nesbit and Tristin O’Brien each had two hits. Logan Feeney went six innings, striking out eight with no walks and no earned runs.
Nisswa advances to face Raymond on Saturday, Aug. 29th, at 6:30pm, in Shakopee, immediately following the Buckman game.
Cold Spring Springers 7, Foley 3
In the early game of Sunday’s trifecta, the home Springers jumped out to an early lead, pounding out four hits to score three runs of Foley starter Josiah Peterson. Foley responded with a run in the second and a pair in the fourth off Cold Spring’s Jack Arnold to tie the game 3-3.
Arnold continued to wiggle out of jams before yielding to draftee Reed Marquardt from the Chisago Lakes Bulldogs, with the Jacks loading the bases to no avail in the sixth, eighth, and ninth innings.
The Springers added three runs in the sixth and another in the eighth to expand their lead.
Brady Klehr, Brad Olson, Calan Heying, and William Huls all had multi-hit games for Cold Spring, with Huls, Heying, and Klehr each driving in two runs. Arnold and Marquardt combined for nine strikeouts and no earned runs on eleven hits.
Drew Beier had a four-hit game for Foley, and Wyatt Ziwicki added three. Peterson struck out 10 Springers in 5 2/3 innings of work
The Springers advance to face Bluffton on Sunday, Aug. 30, at 11 a.m. in New Prague.
