The Becker Buzzards 35+ baseball team etched its name in the record books last weekend as they collected their fifth straight state title by taking the crown in the Class A division. No team in MN amateur baseball history has ever collected five straight titles.

“The championship was our fifth straight and the franchise’s sixth overall in our 14 year history as a team,” manager Jason Baune said. “The state title game was about as close a baseball game as a fan could ever watch.”

Close indeed, as Becker picked up a 1-0 win over the Luxemburg Brewmeisters in the title game after romping over Prior Lake 14-4 in the semifinals.

In the win over Prior Lake, the Buzzard bats knocked around the Mariner pitching staff in a rematch of the 2018 Class A title game, which the Buzzards won 2-0.

This year, Buzzards were able to grab a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning as Jason Wald led off with a single and Rich Petty reached on an error before Jason Pfingsten followed with a single to score both runners.

The Buzzards opened the game up with four runs in the bottom of the second, as Matt Koester and Steve Newman led off with singles before Calen Kirkland singled to score Koester.  Ryan Williams would follow with an RBI groundout to make it 4-0. An error by the Mariners’ left fielder allowed another run to score and Petty singled to push across another run to make it 6-0.  

The Mariners would take advantage of two Buzzard errors to plate two runs in the top of the third to make the score 6-2 and it remained there until the bottom of the fourth when a combination of eight hits, two errors, a walk and a hit by pitch would allow the Buzzards to send 14 batters to the plate and score eight runs to push the lead to 14-2.  

Big hits were provided by Petty, who hit a two-run double off the tall fence in left field, and Pfingsten – with his own double off the base of the fence to score two more runs.  

Tanner Bakke would pick up the win going all five innings and allowing four runs, all unearned, on five hits and two walks. He struck out three batters. Kirkland led the Buzzards with three hits, while Wald, Petty, Pfingsten, and Chico Schroeder each added two hits.

The win moved the Buzzards to their fifth straight state championship game as they would take on fellow Northwest League member, Luxemburg. The Buzzards and Brewmeisters had split two regular season games and this game would be a battle between two evenly matched teams.

Luxemburg looked to take an early lead in the top of the first when they loaded the bases with one out, but Steve Newman made a great defensive play to turn a hard ground ball to third base into a double play when he stepped on third and fired to first.  

The Buzzards had several early threats but were unable to push a run across the board until the the bottom of the fourth when Chico Schroeder led off with a single and an error allowed Koester to reach, putting runners on first and second with nobody out. Newman laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners and Kirkland followed with a single to left center that would score pinch runner Brian Kolbinger for the game’s only run.  

Luxemburg came back fighting in the top of the fifth when a single and a double put runners on second and third with nobody out. Pfingsten, however, would bear down and strikeout the next batter for the first out. The next batter hit a line drive to left, but Koester made a great catch and was able to double the runner off second base to end the inning and preserve the 1-0 lead.  

The Buzzards went down quickly in the bottom of the inning and the Brewmeisters led off the sixth with another base hit. The next batter grounded out to advance the runner to second with the middle of the order coming up. A brilliant barehanded play by Petty would retire the next batter and with a runner on third, Pfingsten got the cleanup hitter to pop up and end the threat. 

Pfingsten made sure the Brewmeisters wouldn’t threaten in the seventh as he fielded a ground ball for the first out, struck out the second batter, and got the final out on a shallow fly ball to left.

Pfingsten got the win with the complete game shutout, allowing seven hits, walking none and striking out seven. 

Pfingsten was named the Tri-County Lumber Player of the Tournament, picking up the win in the championship game as well as going 2-3 with four RBI in the semifinal victory.Koester was awarded the Becker Township Gold Glove Award for his stellar play in left field in both the semifinal and championship games.

The Buzzards finished the season with a record of 12-4.