Hampton Cardinals: News: 2005 Playoffs Recap

Wednesday, August 31
2005 Playoffs Recap

Hampton made an unusual first round exit, in a 10 inning, 1-3 loss.  Meyers threw 9 innings, and Anthonsen scored the only Cardinal run, after a lead off triple.  After that, Hampton was shut down by the Granite Falls ace Kvam, he allowed only one more single the rest of the way.  State Tourney Details : Class C brackets
Hampton ends the season in a 16-way tie for 17th place in the State.  Record 22-13

Regional Recap:  See the News section for the brackets.
Hampton won the Regional Championship convincingly over Elko Saturday afternoon.  Tom Arnold pitched 6 shutout innings, leading the way to a 7 inning win, 11-1.  Anthonsen lead the way offensively with a 2 run homerun early in the game.  Hampton then scored 9 runs in the 5th inning, behind bases loaded singles from Giefer, Pagel, and Giefer.

Hampton hung on to beat Union Hill 5-4 Sunday afternoon to clinch a spot in the State Tournament!  Slinde got the win, going 8 innings. Piechowski had 2 homeruns, and 5 RBI to give the Cardinals a 5-1 lead.  The Cardinals' outfield limited Union Hill's chances, making some great catches near the short fences. Union Hill did march back into it, scoring 2 runs in the 7th, and a lead off homerun in the bottom of the 9th to make things interesting.  But the next 3 batter went down in order, and Hampton moves on to Hutchinson/Dassel and the 2005 State Tournament!  

The Express knocked out Union Hill Friday night 6-4, for thier 3rd straight win, and a return visit to State.   Elko got a 3 run homerun in the 8th inning to take the lead, and Wednesday night they were down 2 runs in the 9th, and rallied to knock out Prior Lake. 

Second Round Elimination Scores: Elko over Montgomery 7-2 : Prior Lake over Randolph 2-1

Last Friday night, the Cardinals used pitching, defense, and clutch hitting to beat the Elko Express Friday night.  In a great pitchers duel, Cannon Falls draftee Keith Meyers shut out Elko.  Hampton made the most of some early opportunities, getting 2-out RBI singles from Ryan Giefer and Jorin Tix in the 3rd and 4th.  That would be all they needed (and all they could get from Elko's stingy pitcher).

First round:
Hampton got the job done against the familiar Prior Lake Mudcats, with a 7-2 win.  After falling behind 0-2 early, they got things going at the plate, scoring runs in the 4th - 7th innings.