Knights Overcome Slow Start to Defeat East Bethel

Hinckley hosted East Bethel on Wednesday night.

The Knights came into the game as the 2nd place team in their division, with Quamba close behind. The Bandits were in the middle of their division but came in having won two in a row.

Although the 1st inning went well for Hinckley the next two innings were a bit rough. The Bandits scored three runs on 5 hits and were in position to have even more, but were stopped. Speaking of being in position, even though the Knights did come back to answer all three of those runs, they left 5 runners stranded in scoring position and had bases loaded twice but were only able to score two runs. Now two runs is still good, but with bases load and zero outs you hope to be able to score more. But after three innings things were about to change in a big way in favor of Hinckley. They would go on to allow only a single hit in the next four innings. Isaiah Hasz would be on an absolute tear from the 4th to the 6th striking out three batters and all but two of the other outs were fairly easy groundouts. Cody Gustafson came in the 7th and continued where Hasz left off. Offensively, they would go on to score 11 runs in the last 5 innings. It started with a 2 run home run from Cory Schmidt, the team leader in RBI's and home runs, in the 4th. Then in the 5th, they scored 5 more runs on 3 hits. They were held off the board in the 6th, but scored a run in the 7th and scored three more runs in the 8th on 2 more hits. Going into the 8th they were up 11-3, unfortunately the Bandits found some two out magic and score r of their own runs in the 8th. So going into the 9th Hinckley still lead 14-5. They'd bring in Sam Haugen on the mound to finish off the game. It was close to being a quick 1, 2, 3 inning, but two errors in the field extended the game and East Bethel score another. But Haugen was able to shut down the comeback with one final strikeout to seal the win 14-6.

Hinckley improves to 13-9 overall and 10-2 in league play holding firm to 2nd place. They only have 5 more games in the regular season, before playoffs begin. They'll host North Branch on Friday and Sartell on Saturday.

Pitching

Hinckley: Isaiah Hasz, 6 innings, 6 hits, 3 runs( only 1 earned), 3 walks, 9 K's

Cody Gustafson 2 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs(only 1 earned) 2 K's

Sam Haugen 1 inning, 2 hits, 1 run(unearned) 1 walk, 2 K's

Player of the Game

Isaiah Hasz 3-3 HBP, drew a walk, two Doubles, 2 RBI's