THESE ARE YOUR HAWKS

HAYWARD -- The Hawks beat Brill and the Haugen Hornets to take the Independent League Tournament title as they prepare for the state semifinals next weekend.

Friday night the Hawks held off the Brill Millers 7-6 to advance to Saturday's championship game where they topped the Hornets 6-2.

In the title game the Hawks leading 1-0 extended the lead to 4-0 with a three-run fourth inning. Josh Kanters' two-out broken bat infield single scored Phil Zeigle from second. Tom Danczyk followed with a ringing double to bring home Zeigle and Kanters. 

Down 4-1 the Hornets pushed across another run in the fifth to trim the Hawks lead to 4-2. with the Hawks putting the game away with two runs on the sixth on Zeigle's RBI double who then scored on Danczyk's single.

To get to the title game the Hawks built a 7-0 lead with a three run fifth. A Millers fielding error opened the door. Zeigle drove in Jonah Sande with a single. Kanters scored on a wild pitch and Trent Kirkland scored on Jason Rasmussen's groundout.

The Millers answered that with their in the bottom of the fifth and back-to-back two-out base hits.

That set the scene for Brill's wild rally in the bottom of the seventh. Matt Flesher relieved to start the inning. Leadoff hitter Bill Brown reached on a single after his catchable foul ball fell. One out later an error and an infield single that caromed off of Flesher. After a pop fly made it two outs Logan Hile doubled to center sending home three runners fo cut the Hawks lead to 7-6.

Then with two outs Hile tried inexplicably to steal third and was gunned down by Kirkland to end the game.