BUTTERMAKERS HAVE AN UGLY SUNDAY

By Mark Zinnel- Buttermaker Reporter The Buttermakers hopes of earning a first round bye in the upcoming Region 13C play-offs took a big hit when Hadley lost 2 games to two of the 3 teams, they were tied with for 1 of the 5 first round byes. Here is the week’s recap: Wednesday at Milroy HADLEY 11 MILROY 5 Hadley traveled northeast to take on the Milroy Yankees of the Corn Belt League in an exhibition game. It has been quite a few years since the Buttermakers and Yankees have faced each other. Milroy, like Hadley have a rich baseball history on their sides and have been frequent State Tournament participants, but Milroy has had better success in tournament play.

Manager Myron Bennett was looking to save arms for the last crucial weeks of league play ahead of them and chose to deploy young arms to face the Yankees. Starting out on the mound for Hadley would be Peyton Coulter.

Hadley would get off to a great start after Eric Wieneke would blast a 3-run home run to give Hadley an early 3-0 lead. Hadley’s lead did not last long as the Yankees would match Hadley’s run output when Peyton would give up 2 doubles, a hit batter and the defense would commit two errors to aid in the Yankee scoring.

Hadley would take back the lead in the 3rd. Brent Hokeness would lead-off with a triple. After Eric Wieneke would reach after getting hit by a pitch, Lincoln Graven would single to score Hokeness. A walk would load the bases with no outs. Milroy would get a strikeout and then Austin Irlbeck would hit into a 5-2-3 double play to end Hadley’s scoring effort. Milroy would tie the game in the bottom of the 4th. After getting the first two outs, Milroy would get a single. The next batter would put down a successful bunt single. The throw to 1st would be late and the return throw to 3rd trying to get the runner trying to advance would be off the mark allowing the run to score.

Milroy would make trouble for Hadley in the 5th. A lead-off double and single would force a pitching change for Hadley. Buttermaker rookie sidewinder, Owen Gillette would make his 1st appearance on the mound for Hadley. Owen would give up a sacrifice fly to put Milroy on top. Owen would give up a walk and hit a batter to load the bases. Owen was able to get out of trouble without Milroy scoring any further runs by getting a line-out and strike out to end Milroy’s threat.

The game remained 5-4 until the 7th. Mike Preuss would lead off with a triple for Hadley. Derek Kluis would follow with a single to tie the game. Once again Hadley would load the bases and fail to score any additional runs.

Hadley would take over the game in the 8th after a Yankee pitching change when they scored 4 times to go up 9-5. The big hit coming from Brent Hokeness on a 2-run bases loaded single. Hadley would put two more insurance runs on the board in the 9th to go up 115. Owen Gillette would hold the Yankees to just 4 hits in his 5 innings of work to earn his first victory.

Mike Preuss led Hadley with 3 hits, Derek Kluis countered with 2 hits with Jaden Deacon, Eric Wieneke, Alex Johnson and Lincoln Graven each getting 1 hit. Other rbis for Hadley came from Alex Petersen with 1 rbi and Derek Kluis with 2 rbis.

Final Box Score R H E Hadley 11 11 3 Milroy 5 11 3 Sunday was an important day of baseball to the Buttermakers as they had two tough games versus teams that they are tied with in First Nite-Gopher League rankings for a first round play-off bye with each having 3 league losses.

Sunday Game 1– vs Milroy – 7 Innings MILROY 5 HADLEY 2 The Milroy Irish were first on the agenda. The Irish currently holds the tie-breaker edge over the Buttermakers with their early season victory, so getting off to a good start and a victory was critical for Hadley. Unfortunately for Hadley, the good start would be in Milroy’s favor as Hadley’s bats were asleep the whole game as they were unable to take advantage of opportunities Milroy offered.

Bryce Ahrendt was given the starting nod to shut down the Irish. The Irish would start out grabbing the lead. Milroy would collect 2 hits and 1 run in both the 1st and 2nd innings to take a quick 2-0 lead. Danny Blankenship would double to lead-off the 2nd inning, but that would be as far as he would advance. Abe Paulzine would walk but a double play would end Hadley’s hopes of scoring. Milroy would stretch the lead to 5-0 by scoring 3 times in the 4th.

Danny Blankenship would hit another double with 1-out in the 4th, but once again the Buttermaker bats left him stranded there. In the b bottom of the 5th, it looked like Hadley was ready to make a run. Joe Larson would start things off by working out a walk. After an infield fly out, Derek Kluis would hit a grounder to 3rd base. The Irish 3rd baseman would make a throw to 2nd to get Joe out, but the 2nd baseman would drop the ball. Brent Hokeness would walk to load the bases. Max Zwart would line a drive to the right-center fence to score 2 runs. Courtesy runner, Mike Preuss, would round 3rd to attempt to score but was held up. Hadley would run themselves as Max continued to round 2nd base forcing a rundown of Mike Preuss. Milroy would tag Preuss out. Milroy would make a pitching change. The Irish reliever would coax a ground out to end Hadley’s scoring.

Hadley would load the bases again in the 6th. But the bats remained asleep. Milroy would shut the Buttermakers down 1-2-3 for the 5-2 victory.

Evan Lenz would pick up Hadley’s other hit in the game. Bryce Ahrent took the loss. Sam Erickson saw mound duty as he pitched the 7th inning.

RHE Hadley 2 4 2 Milroy 5 6 2 Sunday Game 2– vs Windom – 7 Innings WINDOM 6 HALDEY 4 Game 2 had the Windom Pirates coming to Hadley from a game rescheduled from the beginning of the month. Games between these two foes are always a toss-up. Sunday’s game looked like it would be the same.

Tucker Sorenson started on the mound for Hadley. Hadley would be the first to score. In the 3rd, Jacob Olson would walk to start things off. Alex Petersen would follow with a single. After a fielder’s choice out, Evan Lenz would get hit to load the bases. Brent Hokeness would single to score one. Max Zwart would hit a sacrifice fly to score another run. Danny Blankenship would walk to reload the bases. Derek Kluis would hit comebacker to the mound for the 3rd out to end any further scoring threat.

Windom would get a run back in the 4th on 2 hits and a Buttermaker fielding error. Tucker would strand Pirate on 2nd and 3rd. Hadley would put runners on the corners with only one out, but the Pirate starter would get 2 strikeouts to end Hadley’s scoring opportunity. In the 5th, Brent Hokeness led off with a walk. Max Zwart would double to score Hokeness. Max was able but to advance to 3rd, but Hadley could not get another hit with Hadley now with a 3-1 lead.

Things got bad for the Buttermakers in the 6th. The Pirates would score 5 runs off Sorenson on 5 hits and 2 Buttermaker fielding errors to go up 6-3. Hadley would try to comeback in the bottom of the inning. Eric Wieneke would pinch hit and work out a walk. Austin Irlbeck would follow with a single. The Pirate left fielder would let the ball get under his glove. Seeing this, Eric Wieneke would attempt to race to 3rd but would get thrown out. Joe Larson would get hit to put runners at 1st and 2nd. With 2 outs, Brent Hokeness would reach after the Pirate 1st baseman dropped the throw from 3rd giving the Buttermakers a hope to continue scoring. Max Zwart would hit a routine fly ball to center to leave the bases loaded.

Sam Erickson came into to pitch the 9th and shut the Pirates down in order. Hadley had one last chance for a comeback. The Pirate reliever would get 2 quick outs with Mike Preuss due up. Mike would reach 1st base after a passed ball on a strikeout. The hopes for a come from behind would end after Preuss would get picked off first to end the game, resulting in a disappointing 6-4 loss.

Max Zwart led Hadley with 2 hits and 2 rbis. Alex Petersen had 2 hits. Brent Hokeness and Austin Irlbeck had Hadley’s other hits. Brent Hokeness had Hadley’s other rbi. Tucker Sorenson took the loss moving record to 2-3 for the season. RHE Hadley 4 6 3 Windom 6 8 3 Hadley will now have to win out their remaining games and hope for help along the way to garner a tourney first round bye. Hadley will have their midweek play off due to the 4th of July. Hadley will be on the road for a 2:00 Saturday make-up game versus Heron Lake in a game rescheduled from June 23. On Sunday, the Pipestone A’s are in town for a scheduled 2:00 start time. Check with the Buttermaker Twitter or website for any game time change announcement. End the week with the annual fireworks program occurring at dusk that evening.

The Hadley Buttermakers had two college athletes named to the MCAC Spring All-Academic Team: Abe Paulzine - Minnesota West Community and Technical College and Evan Lenz Riverland Community College. Lenz was also named to the 2024 Spring Elite Team.