Scoring four runs on five well-placed hits in the bottom of the first inning Saturday afternoon (May 18), the combination of Heron Lake-Okabena and Fulda prevailed over the pairing of Glenville-Emmons and Alden-Conger in a non-conference high school varsity baseball game, known as the “Knutson Classic,” by a final score of 5-2.
Played at Heron Lake’s Laker Field under sunshine in the early innings and partially cloudy skies later in the seven-inning contest, the two programs — separated by 122 miles from Glenville to Heron Lake — clashed for the third straight year in late May.
The Glenville-Emmons / Alden-Conger Wolverines are coached by Lucas Knutson and the HL-O / Fulda Coyotes are coached by Chad Knutson. The two brothers both played high school baseball for Heron Lake-Okabena and have played “Town Team” baseball for the Heron Lake Lakers since graduating (Chad in 2000 and Lucas in 2005) from what was known in those years as Southwest Star Concept or SSC with Quasars as the school’s mascot.
The first game was played at Heron Lake in 2017 (a year before the pairing with Fulda) and the HL-O Wildcats claimed a 9-2 victory. Last year, the HL-O / Fulda Coyotes earned a closely-contested 7-5 win at Glenville.
Getting hits from five of their first six batters, the Coyotes made it three victories in a row with Saturday’s 5-2 verdict.
“We got off to a great start,” summed up Chad Knutson. “After that, it was an evenly-played game with the Wolverines outscoring us 2-1 over the next six innings.”
After freshman pitcher Tyson Cotter and the Coyote defense put G-E / A-C down in order in the top of the first frame, sophomore leadoff hitter Eli Fest stroked the first of his game-leading three singles and HL-O / Fulda had a runner on base. Fest stole second and scored on senior Eli Becker’s RBI single, giving the Coyotes a quick 1-0 lead.
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