File photo by Ari Selvey Hanska Lakers’ Sam Knowles delivers a pitch during a Region 2C Amateur Baseball Tournament game against Springfield on Aug. 9 at Eagles Park in Sleepy Eye.

HANSKA — After a 10-6 record in the regular season and a third-place finish in the Region 2C Amateur Baseball playoffs, the Hanska Lakers are ready to return to the Class C Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament.

Hanska had previously made state in 2020 and 2021 but missed the tournament the past two years. Many thought that Hanska would again fall short this season after losing star player Chris Knowles to a shoulder injury early in the season, but the Lakers were able to battle on and become one of the top four teams from Region 2C.

“It’s a pretty resilient group,” Hanska manager Chris Koob said. “We lost our best player to injury, he played four games with us and then had to have a surgery. And one of our best players in the lineup for 10 years retired, and another guy went back to St. James once they got a team back going again. Just resilience. It would have been easy to say, ‘Oh, we’re a year away.’ They really stepped up. We really struggled hitting the first half of the year, but the young guys stuck with it, made improvements, and now they’re in the state tournament.”

Koob said the team learned to rely on its experience in the Region 2C tournament, with younger players learning from the veterans.

“I think the biggest thing was the experience with the young guys,” he said. “We’re a mixture, with half our lineup are veterans and half our guys are pretty new. Just winning big games in a region tournament. Region tournament versus regular season games are just drastically different in amateur baseball. Veterans get a little bit more ramped up from team to team, so just our young guys getting that experience of wining big region games, now they know what it takes, and hopefully it takes to the state tournament and takes that next step to winning there.”

Leading the team this year at the plate has been Kevin Larson, who’s batting .310 from the leadoff spot with a home run and a .925 OPS with a team-high 16 RBIs. Sam Knowles leads the team in batting average with .375 with a .909 OPS while adding 11 RBIs, and Tanner Olson anchors the cleanup spot in the lineup, batting .234 with a home run, nine RBIs and four doubles

Hanska will match up against the Waconia Lakers in the first round of the tournament, with the two like-named teams facing off in Green Isle on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Waconia is a common name at the state tourney and will present a tough challenge for Hanska.

“They’ve got a really tough lefty that I’m sure they’ll throw in the first game against us,” Koob said. “Probably one of the better pitchers in the state. They come out of Region 7, which some say is the toughest region in the state. They’re battle-tested, very veteran team. Like I’m going to tell our guys, some people might say this is a bad matchup, but we’ll be the bad matchup.”

Hanska will have to rely on its top-two pitchers — Sam Knowles and Aaron Portner — to limit Waconia runs. Luckily, those two have been a winning formula for Hanska all season long, and all three of Hanska’s wins in the Region 2C playoffs came when the pair were on the mound.

“Aaron, he’s a big, tall lefty,” Koob Said. “Comes at you from a different angle, he relies on change of speeds a little bit more. He gets a lot of movement, especially in his fastball. Really just sees hitters very well. Sam’s a righty, a tall righty, but he throws them at a lower arm angle than Aaron. He relies more on all his pitches, throws it with a little more velo[city] than Aaron. It’s just a little bit different of a look. They throw from different sides.”

Sam Knowles has posted a 5-3 record this season with a save, striking out 42 batters with a 3.58 ERA in 65 1/3 innings pitched. Portner, meanwhile, is 5-1 with three saves, 47 strikeouts and a 2.35 ERA in 53 2/3 innings pitched.

When it comes to getting the win against Waconia, Koob said the team will have to limit mistakes while taking advantage of offensive opportunities.

“Really when you get to the state tournament, for every team, whether you’re the favorite or not, it comes down to execution,” Koob said. “You have to execute in the field and you have to get timely hits. If you do those things in a single-elimination tournament, the team that does that is going to come out on top. I just think the biggest thing when you go against a veteran team that has high expectations is to put the pressure on them. Make the plays in the field and get on them early, make them feel a little nervous.”