The Spooner Cardinals defeated the Hayward Hawks 8-4 in their final home game of the year to win the season series 2-1 and secure second place in the Independent League final standings. Mathematically speaking, Spooner remains alive for the Indy Championship but would need Brill to lose their final four games of the season (DH with Haugen on Saturday and DH with Cumberland on Sunday). Sooo, you're saying there's a chance?!?!

Jesse Morales pitched seven solid innings to earn the win with Nick Webster pitching the final two frames of relief. Brandon Shutt launched a bases loaded 3-run double to the right field wall in the third inning to break the game open at 4-0. The Cardinals added one run in the fourth and fifth innings and lead 6-2 through six. Hayward scored a pair of runs in the seventh when a fly ball in the twi-night sky was lost and allowed two runs to score. Otherwise, the Cardinals played pretty clean defense overall despite missing their three usual starting outfielders. Zach Rombach tallied a four hit game and four other Cardinals (Morales, Brandon Rangel, Sam Holden and Haiken Meier) had two-hit games. 

The win allows the Cardinals to finish 7-5 in league play for the second consecutive year and finish no lower than second (most likely 2nd). WBA seedings come out on Tuesday July 29th. Possible assignments include (Haugen, River Falls, Osseo, or Wisconsin Rapids). Spooner finishes their regular season with a Saturday night game in River Falls at 7:30.