Dane Hagler/Photo via Tom Hager
CANDO — The Cando Post 79 Bearcats are headed to the District 3 tournament final.
After Monday’s rollercoaster victory over No. 5-seeded Devils Lake, they made things much less stressful in an 11-1 thumping of No. 3-seeded Velva on Tuesday. Eight runs in the first two innings, plus a typically strong outing from Dane Hagler, led Cando to the run-rule win.
“It was nice that we jumped on them right away,” Cando head coach Jesse Vote said. “We did that the last couple games, and this time we didn’t let them crawl back in on us. But obviously, with Dane on the mound, we’re gonna be around the zone and throwing strikes.”
Velva played a sloppy first inning that allowed Cando to post a four-spot. Two errors, two wild pitches and a double by Zach Jorde made it 3-0. The Bearcats scratched out another after Hunter Hagler walked, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on the third error of the inning. Jorde’s double was the only hit in the frame, but Cando led 4-0.
“The whole team, the bats were working pretty well today,” Jorde said. “Velva’s obviously a pretty solid team; they put away Bottineau, and they beat us in high school ball. So it was pretty nice there to kind of get some revenge… Good approaches at the plate today from everyone.”
Cando ace D. Hagler walked the first batter he faced. But he retired the next six, striking out two.
The Bearcats’ offense went right back to work in the second, resulting in another four-spot. Jorde hit his second RBI double of the day, and Parker Simon followed him with another RBI double. The inning stayed alive on Velva’s fourth error of the game. Then Karsen Simon added another RBI hit to make it 8-0.
Cando brought K. Simon to the mound to start the third inning But after Simon recorded one out, Vote brought Hagler right back in.
Vote explained that the original thinking was to save Hagler for Wednesday, given that the game was already a blowout. But he quickly remembered that a pitcher isn’t allowed to go three days in a row — regardless of how many pitches they throw in each outing.
“So that was kind of a little blunder that I had there,” Vote said. “We said, ‘We’re just gonna come back with Dane, and we’ll ride him where we are.’”
Hagler struck out the next two batters.
Jorde came up big yet again in the bottom of the third, hitting an RBI single after Hagler and Brody Svir got on base. It was Jorde’s third RBI hit in as many innings.
“I just felt like I was at the plate, seeing the ball really well,” Jorde said. “Yesterday, I went 0-for-3 but I hit the ball really well. Just been seeing the ball really well the whole tournament. Picking up spin out of the hand from the pitcher there. Picking up curveballs, and one of my doubles was off of a knuckleball.”
Velva’s first hit came with one out in the fifth. The 39ers got on the board, then, after an error by third baseman K. Simon and another hit. But Hagler kept it at 9-1, inducing a 4-6-3 double play to end the frame.
Then Cando walked it off with two in the bottom half, much like Devils Lake did in its run-rule win over Harvey earlier on Tuesday. Velva committed two more errors in the inning, bringing its total to six on the day.
Overall, Hagler settled for six strikeouts in (technically) 4 2/3 innings, allowing just an unearned run on two hits and one walk.
“He’s always been there, growing up,” Vote said. “He’s gonna compete no matter the situation.”
Cando will compete for the District 3 title and a spot in the state tournament on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Its opponent will be the winner of Velva vs. (the winner of Devils Lake vs. Rugby).
The Bearcats just need to win once without losing twice in order to advance to the state tournament. Notably, they were in this exact same position in the spring — and they lost the next two games, which ended their season in heartbreak.
They’ll try to avoid that this time.
“Obviously, that’s gonna be in the back of our heads,” Vote said. “But we can’t have it in the back of our heads. It’s a whole new season, a new team, and we just gotta compete like we can.”
Jorde added, “I think it’s gonna be a different story this time. The bats are really working in our favor right now. Everyone’s seeing the ball. We have all of our pitching. I think we’re in pretty good position to seal the deal.”
