• • Pilot Raceway News

When the ball left Caleb Rossow’s bat in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tied playoff game last Friday, his Jackson Bulls teammates thought Rossow had just jacked a walk-off homer.

But manager Scott Bahr thought it was a double – good enough to at least put the potential winning run in scoring position.

The players were right.

Rossow belted a 1-1 fastball over the left field fence for a 5-4 walk-off win over Heron Lake in last Friday’s First Nite League playoffs.

“When he hit it, I wasn’t thinking home run,” Bahr said. “I was thinking double. I was yelling, ‘Get to two.’”
But the ball stayed fair and had plenty of distance to clear the fence.

“That’s pretty big,” Bahr said. “We’ve had some walk-off home runs, but to do it in the playoffs, that’s a whole nother deal.”

Rossow’s heroics were set up by the dominance of Keith Fandel and the resilience of the Bulls.

Heron Lake took a 4-1 lead early, scoring a run in the first, two in the second and another in the third.

But the Bulls kept fighting and tied the game in the fourth inning.

“It was a complete team effort,” Bahr said. “We could’ve packed it in, but instead, everybody kept their heads up, stayed positive and said, ‘Let’s do this.’ Everybody had to regroup and compete.

Jason Cook, who had singled and scored for the Bulls’ first run in the bottom of the first, started the comeback with a leadoff bunt single in the bottom of the third. Kip Wachal plated Cook with a double and the Bulls were within two runs.

Jackson tied the game in the bottom of the fourth when Rossow reached on an error and stole second base. He quickly scored on a single by Ryan Rasche, who scored on Cook’s third single of the game.

“We scratched and clawed a little bit at a time and found a way to put up a couple of runs,” Bahr said.

Heron Lake had the only runner in scoring position during the next four-plus innings when Trevon Bargfrede tripled with two outs in the sixth and Octavio Jimenez got as far as second in the seventh. Neither runner scored as Fandel continued to shut down the Lakers after his early troubles.

“In the seventh or eight inning, he started getting the look in his eyes like you’re not taking me out of here,” Bahr said of Fandel. “He made some mistakes early but settled down.”

Fandel struck out the side in the eighth and K’d the final two batters of the ninth before Rossow’s one-out, walk-off homer.

Fandel struck out 14 batters and allowed just six hits in the game.

“I didn’t realize he had 14 strikeouts until I counted them up in the book after the game,” Bahr said.

Cook finished with three hits and scored twice. Rossow also scored twice and Marcus Schultz had two hits.

“It was one of them where you hated to see anyone lose,” Bahr said. “It was a great baseball game.”

The win advanced the Bulls in the winner’s bracket, where they were scheduled to play top-seeded Fairmont last night. The winner of that game advances to the championship game and earns a spot in the next round of playoffs. The loser will face either Heron Lake or Windom on Friday night, with the winner of Friday night’s game advancing to the league championship and also earning a spot in the next round of playoffs.