Dane Hagler/Photos via Susan Warcken, ND Class B Legion State Baseball Tournament Facebook
After hosting and dominating the district tournament, Cando Post 79’s season came to an end in the state tournament in LaMoure this weekend.
The Bearcats lost 4-1 to Lisbon Post 7 and 8-4 to Carrington Post 25. Thus ended a successful season for the Bearcats, and the final ride together for their talented group of seniors.
Cando’s multi-sport superstar, Dane Hagler, got the start in Game 1 against Lisbon on Friday. He allowed four runs (two earned) on five hits in five innings, with six strikeouts and two walks.
Lisbon scored three of its runs in the first inning. An infield single and a triple got the team on the board, and two more runs scored on an error and a wild pitch. Though there was only one quality hit in the inning — the triple — Cando trailed 3-0.
Offensively, the Bearcats’ first hit didn’t come until the third inning. Hagler was hit by a pitch in the first inning and advanced to third on an error, but his brother Hunter struck out to end the threat. It was D. Hagler who recorded Cando’s first hit with a one-out single in the third, but he was stranded on third once again after a pair of groundouts.
The Bearcats got something going in the fifth inning, as Garrett Westlind hit a leadoff single and Chas Bisbee drew a walk. D. Hagler walked to load the bases, and Brody Svir got Cando on the board with a single to right field. The rally stopped on a Zach Jorde flyout, the Bearcats still trailing 3-1.
Lisbon responded with its own run in the bottom half, tallying a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly. Hagler had only allowed one hit since the first inning before that mini rally, and Lisbon achieved the 4-1 lead that would eventually hold.
H. Hagler hit a single in the sixth inning, and the Bearcats had a prime chance to get back into the game after an error and a hit by pitch loaded the bases. The two-out rally was short-lived, though, as Alec Peyerl struck out. The top of the Cando order went down 1-2-3 in the seventh.
The Bearcats just couldn’t get the offense they wanted as they dropped the first game.
That brought them to Saturday, where some late run production wasn’t enough to overcome an 8-0 deficit in an eventual 8-4 loss. Karsen and Parker Simon each pitched two innings, and each allowed four runs.
Karsen only permitted one hit, and one of the runs was unearned due to a passed ball. Lisbon took a 2-0 lead in the first inning against him. He retired the side in order in the second, but issued two free passes to start the third inning and was replaced by his twin brother, Parker. A double knocked in two more runs for Lisbon.
Free passes continued to bite the Bearcats. Two walks and a hit by pitch loaded the bases against P. Simon in the fourth, and then two straight hits brought in four more runs, blowing it open to 8-0. Simon ended the inning with a pickoff at first base.
Offensively, for the first four innings, it was a similar story as the first game. The Bearcats’ biggest chance came on a leadoff double by H. Hagler in the second, but they couldn’t string hits together. They got on the board in the fifth, though, as Westlind walked, Peyerl singled and D. Hagler hit a sacrifice fly.
Jorde entered on the mound and shut Lisbon down for the final two innings. He struck out five, walked three and didn’t allow any hits. If the Bearcats were going to make a miraculous comeback, Jorde did his job in giving them as much of a chance as possible.
And in the top of the sixth, they got their biggest spurt of offense yet. P. Simon and H. Hagler knocked back-to-back doubles, and K. Simon kept the line moving with a walk. Westlind recorded an RBI single, and the third run of the inning scored on an RBI fielder’s choice from Sean Freund.
It was 8-4. And beyond that, Cando even made things interesting in the seventh. And it all came with two outs. After Brody Svir walked to keep the game alive, Jorde and P. Simon hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. That brought the potential tying run to the plate for a team that was trailing 8-0 just a few innings ago.
But alas, H. Hagler struck out to end the game. The comeback effort was valiant but short-lived, and the summer of Cando baseball came to an end.
That does it for the Bearcats’ deep group of seniors playing on the same field together. Some of them will still have Legion eligibility for next summer, but some won’t, and they’ll all be starting their post-high school journeys throughout the next year.
All good things come to an end, and Cando’s run arrived at its culmination this weekend.
