Jordan Kangas is keeping this Rochester A's coaching thing in the family.
Jordan's father Keith directed the American Legion baseball team forever, followed by Keith tossing the keys to his oldest son Blake last season, followed by them being handed to Keith's youngest son Jordan this year.
Fitting that someone as young as the 22-year-old Jordan is directing this A's edition. Because young personifies them. All of the A's will be back at Century next year, including a pack of incoming juniors.
"Our players are just a bunch of pups," said Keith, who works as an assistant to Jordan, but has maintained his position as the Rochester Century head baseball coach.
Well, those pups grew up a bit Monday night. They did it by simply hanging in there. After playing from behind most of the night, the A's got things together from the fifth inning on and scratched out a 6-5 First District win over the Rochester Redhawks.
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The A's (3-7 First District, 7-8 overall) hit the Redhawks with single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh frames. That was after going into the fifth trailing 4-3 and the sixth down 5-4.
Too often, noted Jordan Kangas, his young team gets down and then stays there.
"Things start to go bad and then we have a hard time turning the water off," said Jordan, who's set to graduate from the University of Minnesota this summer.
Jordan was pleased to find out that wouldn't be the case Monday night.
"We hung in there," he said. "We competed the whole night."
It was young pitcher Erik Thorvilson who really provided his team a chance. Thorvilson, who'll be a junior this fall, had the cool of a veteran as he faced the Redhawks.
The left-hander worked all seven innings, and made things work despite some uneven play from his defense. The A's committed three errors, which led to three unearned runs.
Still, Thorvilson was unfazed. He kept the Redhawks scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings, including starting a key pickoff of a Redhawks baserunner in the sixth. It was vital, as the Redhawks wound up leaving two men on base that inning.
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"We made the right plays tonight at the right times," Thorvilson said. "It was a team effort — pitching, hitting and defense."
Redhawks coach Tom Senne had to agree with Thorvilson. He said the right team won Monday.
"They deserved to win tonight," said Senne, whose team dipped to 4-3 in the First District and 6-8 overall. "They hung around and they battled. And we deserved to lose. We had really bad clutch hitting."
The A's used three hits in the fifth to score a run, including a double by Riese Zmolek. They got three more hits in the sixth, leading to a run.
Finally, in the seventh, Tyler Gathman — who finished with two hits and three RBIs — walked, then came around to score on a single to shallow center by Brandon Ritz. The Redhawks attempted to throw Gathman out at third, but the ball sailed well over the head of third baseman Ethan Kaese, allowing Gathman to trot home with the game winner.
It was Ritz who'd come up with the final bit of clutch play for the A's, poking that single.
"I just wanted to put it in play," Ritz said. "It was nice to help the team win."
While Thorvilson got the complete-game win, Brad Mathiowetz got the hard-luck loss. He pitched the final 1 1/3 innings, in relief of starter David Brust. The only run Mathiowetz allowed was unearned.
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Christian Rosenow had three of the Redhawks' eight hits, while Brust had two. Gathman and Jordan Jasik each had two of the A's 10 hits. A's 6, Redhawks 5
Redhawks#201#110#0#—#5#8#2
A's#300#011#1#—#6#10#3
Redhawks:Christian Rosenow 3-for-4, 3 R; Brad Mathiowetz 1-for-3, 1 2B, 2 RBI; David Brust 2-for-4, 1 2B, 2 RBI. LP: Mathiowetz 1 1/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K. Pitching: David Brust 5 1/3 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K.
A's:Jordan Jasik 2-for-3, 1 2B, 1 R; Josh Newman 1-for-3, 1 RBI; Riese Zmolek 1-for-3, 1 2B, 2 R; Tyler Gathman 2-for-3, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 1 R; Brandon Knapp 1-for-3. WP: Erik Thorvilson 7 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 2 K.
