By Nick Gerhardt
Delano can party like it’s 1988.
The Athletics claimed their first state title since 1988 and second ever with an 8-2 win over Nisswa for the Class B state championship.
The storied club has 28 state tournament appearances, including a 2022 run where it fell in the semifinals to eventual champion Nisswa 10-8, despite staging a late-inning comeback. The next year as a host site, the A’s came into the tournament as one of the favorites, but bowed out in the quarterfinals to Bluffton. Delano missed the 2024 state tournament after losing to Maple Lake 3-1 in the region playoffs.
“Long time coming,” said Delano’s Toby Hanson, whose uncle Dave Ditty won MVP honors of the 1988 state tournament. “A lot of hard work, a lot of tough losses and challenges along the way but we finally got here and we made the opportunity count. We got hot at the right time.”
Delano reversed roles against the burly Lightning sluggers by hitting three home runs. Jack Paulson hit a go-ahead three-run home run as part of a five-run fifth inning that also included a two-run home run from Trevor Jaunich. Hanson added a solo home run in the eighth against Nisswa lefty Blaine Hardy.
The Lightning and Delano traded runs in the first inning but Nisswa took a 2-1 lead in the second inning with a Kody Ruedisili single to score Chris Pederson.
The A’s finally got to Lightning starter Ben Dornseif as they saw him for the third time in the game in the fifth. Buckman draftee Ben Thoma came on in the fifth and surrendered the two-run home run to Jaunich.
Delano added a run in the sixth inning after pinch hitter Ethan Engelmann singled with two outs and came around to score on a single from leadoff hitter Mason Henry.
Delano’s tournament run included a first-round 2-1 win over Northfield, a 7-2 win over Hinckley, an 11-0 win over host Hutchinson and a 6-2 win over Young America.
The A’s got the bats going after the Northfield win. For the tournament, Marcus Riewer hit .474 and Hanson batted .368 with two home runs and five RBIs. Henry hit .318, scored five runs and drove in two for the tournament. Jaunich hit .316 with two home runs and four RBIs.
Jaunich can celebrate the title with his father, Paul, who played on the 1988 state title team and serves as an assistant coach with the A’s now. Instead of listening to stories about that team, Trevor can tell his own. Ahead of Sunday’s game they talked about the similarities.
“My old man, we were talking earlier, he won it in 1988, he was 33 and I’m 33. So on the way home he said, ‘You have a chance to win a state title at the same age as I did.’ I said, ‘Get out of here, we had two good teams ahead of us,’” Trevor said. “What’s the story going to be? We had a good group of dudes. A lot of awesome guys, stuck together. Everybody loves everybody, supporting everyone. That was the difference.”
The 2025 season marked several changes for Delano. The team moved out of the North Star League, where it had played for 74 years, to the Crow River Valley League and it lost ace pitcher Max Otto, who moved to Milwaukee in the offseason. The move to the CRVL and the familiarity with North Star League teams could’ve helped in the state tournament as the A’s knocked off North Star League foe Hutchinson and the CRVL’s Young America, a team it had lost to three previous times this season. Delano received the third bid out of District 7B and picked Watertown’s Hunter Jackson as one of their draftees.
Jackson won the Fred Roufs MVP honors after going 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA with 18 strikeouts after allowing just three earned runs in the tournament. Not only did he deliver on the mound, he kept things light in the dugout.
“Jackson was lights out,” Jaunich said. “Jackson’s energy that he brought was fun. Good guy to keep us light. Sometimes you get tight in tight games and he’s the guy who’s kind of goofy. He’ll keep you all loose.”
In the championship game the A’s turned to Nick Hays, who led the staff throughout the year. Hays went just two innings and allowed two runs on four hits. But Delano had available arms ready thanks to the starts Hunter provided. Jeff Fasching threw three innings of scoreless relief, allowing just two hits before he gave way to Cade Bruett. Bruett threw the final four innings and overcame some early wildness to hold Nisswa to two hits.
“Some of our pitchers early on — nerves, whatever — kind of struggled a little bit,” said Delano manager Steve Eilen, who also played on the 1988 state title team. “Thankfully we didn’t have to use a lot. We had arms available and all that. Nick gave us a couple of innings, but at that point, it’s like we’ve got guys so we brought in Jeff to kind of settle things down a little bit, which he did. Then Cade Bruett did a heck of a job. He started out kind of nervous but what a job to finish.”
They’ll have some upgrades to make to Delano Municipal Ballball Park ahead of next season now.
“We wanted to put another number up there besides 1988 and we were finally able to do it,” Hanson said.
