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2008 Season Review
Haugen's "Boys of Summer" Return to WBA State Tournament
In the two seasons preceding 2008, the Haugen Knights had shown some stretches of greatness; like their unexpected run to the state tournament in 2006 and their dominating Indy League regular season in 2007. Both years proved that the Knights could play with some of the top teams in the state, and the team was looking to take that next step in 2008. Coming into the season, Knights Manager/Player Rich Lindsey set some lofty goals for a team that had shown the ability to achieve them. The lofty goals meant that the Knights were no longer a young team capable of making some noise here and there; winning and winning often was an expectation for this core group that had been together for almost four years now. The time had come to take the next big step.
There really weren’t any reasons why the Knights wouldn’t be able to contend for another Indy league title. They had won it the year before, and were bringing back pretty much the same squad, along with some added depth. To go along with top backstop Travis Thompson, Dan Lindsey had begun to emerge as one of the elite pitchers in the league, to go along with always reliable and consistent Jolly (Josh) O’Rourke. The young, erratic lineup from years before had slowly transitioned into a group with more poise and savvy at the plate and in the field and their starting lineup any given day was athletic as any you could find in the league, and probably in the Northwest Wisconsin area. That said, there were still a bunch of tough squads in the Independent League, with the perennial league contenders and rival Haugen Hornets and Brill Millers, not to mention Hayward and Grantsburg, two teams who always play the Knights tough, and another group of teams who depending on the year could have very tough ball clubs. No doubt, the Indy League schedule wouldn’t be easy.
The Knights began the season blazing, winning game after game with a couple close scares - especially a 13 inning affair on a Sunday in Seeley, during which the Knights battled through dehydration and a lack of sleep, but managed to put the game away in the early evening. A few weeks and multiple victories after the Seeley scare, they defeated the rival Brill Millers 8-3 in Haugen, in what was their first matchup with an elite team from the Indy league, not to mention the first of two times these two teams would meet.
Things continued to cruise along and the Knights held a 1-game lead in the standings when they entered a tough weekend matchup, starting with a Saturday night matchup with city rival and perennial Indy League contender Haugen Hornets, followed up on Sunday with a day game in Brill. The Knights won the nightcap, 2-0, and followed it up with a “Knightcap” of their own. Details aside, the Knights arrived in Brill Sunday morning a little worse for the wear. On the dusty, windy Sunday, the Knights and Millers were deadlocked in a defensive battle with the score 0-0 heading into the sixth inning. The Knights put a few runners on base, but ended up squandering their scoring opportunities with some errors on the base paths, which were taken advantage of by Brill’s excellent defensive squad. The Millers proceeded to jump on opportunity in the bottom of the inning. With a walk, a couple infield hits, and a couple Knight errors, the six run inning for the Millers was capped off by a three run blast over the left field fence. The Millers ended up tacking on two more in the bottom of the eighth, handing the Knights their first league loss of the year, 8-0.
Two weeks later, the Knights suffered their second loss of the season, a surprise 14-11 defeat at the hands of the visiting Spooner Cardinals. The Knights dragged through the first seven innings, facing deficits of 7-0 and 10-3, but took advantage of some wild Spooner pitching in the eighth to tie up the score 10-10. The Knights seemingly had momentum on their side, but a pair of two out errors in the top of the ninth ending up giving Spooner 4 more runs, handing the Knights another loss after they could only manage one run in their final at bat of the night.
 After such a great start to the season, things were looking a bit bleak after the late regular season letdowns, though the Knights still finished league play in 2nd place, a game behind Brill. Their late-season woes culminated with a loss to the St. Croix Ravens in the first round of the Indy League Tournament in Hayward, which the Knights had won the year before.
However, they seemed to get their stride back the same way they had first stumbled early in the year – a night out on the town in the Hayward area. It must have been their visit to the Good Knight – a local tavern in Hayward, where the Knights washed away their woes and the recent losses to revitalize themselves for the WBA state playoffs.
The night out in Hayward, along with holding a #1 seed and playing the semifinals on their home turf seemed to be just what the doctor ordered for the Haugen boys. They started out the playoffs with a good old-fashioned 9-1 boot-stomping of the Bay City Bombers, followed up by a dominating 10-1 victory over the town rival Hornets to earn their state tournament bid. Ah, yes. It was good to be back at the dance.
The following weekend in Ashland, the Knights advanced to the state’s final four with a 3-2 victory over the La Crescent Cardinals, but then lost to the La Crosse Athletics 4-0 in the state semifinal matchup. Brill had also advanced to the final four, but lost to the eventual WBA Champion Eau Claire Bears.
Looking back at the 2008 season, there were some changes happening in the Indy League. Weyerhauser didn’t field a team for the first time in quite a while, and the Siren Steelers were still developing as a newcomer to the league, not to mention that the league re-aligned to form two divisions creating more league games. Also, the Knights had their first season with walk-up music, which added to the already outstanding baseball atmosphere in Haugen. Amid all the change going on, there were some reccurring themes in the league. Once again, the Knights, Brill Millers, and Haugen Hornets were the teams to beat in the WBA’s Independent League. At the season’s end, the Millers and Knights might have taken a small step forward, after each team defeated the Hornets in their regular season matchup, and then advanced to the state semifinals to stir up talks of an all Indy title game. It didn’t happen, but the playoff success speaks well for the Indy League, and some of that excitement should carry over to 2009.
Baseball can be a crazy game, often difficult to predict, and while there are many games to be played in the summer of 2009, many have circled the July 26th matchup between the Knights and Millers as a game that very well could decide the Indy League champion. With that said, there are plenty of good teams in this league that might have something to say about it; so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Indy League Baseball is almost back!!!
(Stay tuned for the 2009 Indy League preview in April!)
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