HINCKLEY—After falling short Friday in their winner’s bracket finale with the Sartell Muskies, the Hibbing Miners amateur baseball team needed to regroup for one final win-or-go-home battle with Dilworth on Sunday.
The stakes? A trip to the MBA State Tournament as Section 5A’s No. 2 seed. A loss meant the end of the road for either team.
And while the Raildogs drew first blood with a solo home run in the top of the third inning, the rest of the contest was all Hibbing as the Miners downed Dilworth 4-1 to lock up their first state tournament appearance since 2023.
Finishing the job they set out to do two weeks ago at the onset of the section tournament, Hibbing coach Adam Schafer said it was a successful tournament for his side as they played to their strengths in defense and pitching.
“We were a little frustrated after losing that Sartell game 2-0,” Schafer said. “We had 11 hits, left 11 runners on so we knew we had to do better on Sunday. We knew whoever we faced would have played more games than us so we’d be a bit more fresh pitching wise. Overall, our offense struggled over the course of the tournament but we only gave up nine runs over 36 innings.
“We had some timely hitting and our pitching and defense was key for us. It was a fitting way for things to end. We gave up just the one run Sunday and I think it was a good way for us to end the tournament.”
After Dilworth’s Andrew Herian fired a third-inning solo shot to give his team the 1-0 lead, the Miners responded with three runs in the bottom of the third inning. A double from Caleb Gunderson scored Kyler Miller and a two-run homer over the right field fence from Dylan Hedley extended Hibbing’s lead.
Gunderson started the game on the hill and gave up just the one run on three hits and three walks while striking out three. Sam Dick pitched the final two innings, surrendering just two hits while striking out two.
“When we responded with three, it felt like we were in the driver’s seat,” Schafer said. “Caleb pitched a heck of a game, Sam got a lot of big outs for us in the eighth and the ninth so it played out how we wanted it to play out, which is rare sometimes in baseball.
“The whole tournament, the way we set things up with pitching, it just felt like we executed. We had some bad luck Friday night and then some good luck Sunday which certainly helped.”
Thomas Vekich scored the final run for the Miners with a solo shot to right in the fifth inning. Hibbing held on from there and did what they had to in order to secure their spot in the state tournament.
Speaking of his team’s mental fortitude following Friday’s loss, Schafer said his team didn’t get down when things didn’t go their way against Sartell.
“They just came in with a good mentality. They knew it was a big game, an important game and we were close Friday. We just had one bad inning and other than that, we knew we had the pitching depth to take us to where we wanted to go. We knew we were going to have enough arms to get through this game and if our offense did their job then we’d be OK.”
In 2023, the Miners went to state in Class C and the team also advanced in Class B back in 2018. Now making it in Class A, Schafer believes Hibbing may be the first team to advance to state in all three MBA Amateur classes.
Set to open state Saturday against the Northwest Orioles in Chaska, Schafer says the mentality for his team won’t change now that they’ve taken their season to the next level.
“You are who you are. We have really good pitching and good defense so we feel like we’ve had a chance in every game this year. No one’s blown us out. In the games we’ve lost, it’s been by one or two runs. It’s a group of college athletes and kids not that far removed from college that just compete and love baseball.
“This whole tournament they’ve been talking about how they want to get down. For them to get this chance and experience this with 1,000-1,500 people in the stands, the atmosphere will be something to take in. Hopefully it motivates them to want to make it again.”
When they face off with the Orioles and whatever else could come after that, Schafer says they’ll just need to go one inning at a time.
“We’re just looking to extend things by another weekend. It’s a game at a time for us. We play one game this weekend and we hope to make it to the next one. That sets up every team well when it comes to pitching but we’ll have all hands on deck so we plan to go inning by inning. I think we can go in sure of ourselves and with the right level of confidence to hopefully make some noise.”