Pierz Pioneers vs St. Cloud Cathedral Crusaders 6AA Baseball 2025

The Pioneers avenged 2 regular season losses to the 6th ranked and top-seeded Crusaders with a thrilling 1-0 win at Putz Field in St. Cloud in the Section 6AA winners bracket game. The pitching matchup of Jack Hamak for the Crusaders ad Brayden Haberman for the Pioneers kept the fans on the edge of their seats all night. With the game scoreless after 5 innings and Pierz with 3 hits and the Crusaders with only 2 hits, the Pioneers Sawyer Lochner opened the top of the 6th with a double down the right field line. Preston Saehr then sacrificed Lochner to 3rd with 1 out. Jackson Thielen then placed a perfect squeeze bunt down and Lochner raced home with the games first run. But Cathedral was not going to go down without a fight. In the bottom of the 7th, Brayden Haberman gets the first out on a fly ball to right fielder Nathan Solinger, then picked up his 3rd strikeout.  The Pioneers were just 1 out away. But Jack Hamak walked on a 3-2 pitch, then Jacob Oliver singled. After a wild pitch, the Crusaders now had the tying run at 3rd and the winning run at 2nd with 2 outs. Caden Johnson then came up and hit a ground ball up the middle that looked like it was going to find its way into center field and likely score both runs, but at the last moment, shortstop Preston Saehr reached out his glove, snaring the ball in the webbing and fired to 1st baseman Bo Woitalla just in time to record the final out and the Pioneers had knocked off the Crusaders 1-0!