Reusse: Jordan’s victories keep beers flowing for home fans at Mini Met

There are advantages in taking Minnesota Hwy. 25 during a round trip to the Brainerd Lakes area in the summer. A couple of those can be found in Pierz, where fine sloppy Joes by another name can be found at Sue’s Drive-In on the way north, and you can get a bag full of bacon from the counter at Thielen’s on a well-timed return.

There is also this attraction seven miles south of Pierz, that being the condition of the sign at the Buckman ballpark, where notable accomplishments for the village’s club, the Billygoats, are advertised.

I was worried for a few years that civic pride might be waning, as the paint was fading and no one was doing anything about it. Then, late in the previous decade, there was a fine touch-up done to the fact the Billygoats were state Class C baseball champions in 1999, but the paint for the 2001 runner-up finish remained faded.

No Hwy. 25 trip recently, although it’s a good guess the sign thing has been rectified fully with the Billygoats having claimed a second Class C runner-up finish to the rival Nisswa Lightning on Labor Day in 2022.

The location was Faribault, and as distances for fans to commute went, two teams from the state’s north central region were far from optimum for the lifeblood for locales playing host to the State Amateur Baseball Tournament: beer sales.

And as Sunday broke blue and beautiful at the Mini Met in Jordan, the hosts dreamed that the two quarterfinals would feature wins by the hometown Brewers and the nearby Young America Cardinals, setting up a late-afternoon semifinal that would be witnessed by a huge number of famously thirsty fan bases.

Thus, when Jack Greenlun was stifling Jordan, and Buckman was carrying a 2-0 lead into the middle innings, I found Scott Boser in the middle of the 150 rowdy Billygoats fans along the right-field line and said: “Your team is trying to mess up beer sales once again.”

Back in 1999, Scott used his lefthanded power to hit six home runs in the Class C tournament and was the MVP for that Billygoats championship team. He played center field; son Noah, also a lefty hitter, was in left on Sunday.

Noah ripped a hit. “Goat Nation,” as these northern interlopers call themselves, erupted. There were beer cans in their hands and there was Brewers blood in the water.

Tommy Thompson, the Jordan pitcher, kept it at 2-0. And then in the bottom of the sixth, Joe Lucas came up and pulled a two-run no-doubter to left field, and it was tied. Later, Afton Koch scored two more with a single against a drawn-in field.

Made it 4-2 for the favored Brewers, then they added four more in the eighth. Jordan won 8-2, and then Young America won 1-0 and the semifinal beer bonanza was set.

One of the hits for Jordan as it blew open the Buckman game was a double by Scott Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth is a graduate of Cooper High School, pitched college ball at Concordia in St. Paul and pitched one year in the Texas Rangers system in Pulaski, Va., in the Appalachian rookie league.

“My claim to fame is Josh Hamilton hit a home run off me that might still be going,” he said.

Hollingsworth came to Jordan 24 years ago because it was home to his first wife. He’s remarried, everyone’s still in Jordan, there are four kids total, and he has spent the last several summers coaching two of them — 12-year-olds J.T. Hollingsworth and Max Johnson.

“Our Jordan team had a really good year,” he said.

Hollingsworth has already won three state titles. Win a fourth and will you think about hanging it up? Answer: “No, not at all.”

Reece offered an immediate “No,” followed by a 15-year-old’s you’re-being-ridiculous look.