ROCHESTER — Just when it looked like the Hayfield baseball team might be headed for its first Minnesota Class A State Baseball Tournament in school history, the Vikings hit a bump in the road and never recovered as their season came to an end Tuesday.

The Vikings lost both games of the Section 1A championship by scores of 4-2 and 5-3 to Lewiston-Altura at Hudson Field.

Hayfield held a 2-0 lead after four innings with its ace pitcher, Cam Rutledge, on the hill in the first game when the Cardinals took advantage of two Hayfield errors in the top of the fifth to score three unearned runs.The Vikings (18-7 overall) never led again in either game.

“Plays that needed to be made, we just didn’t make them,” Hayfield head coach Kasey Krekling said. “There were some tough hops here and there and all of the sudden a big inning happened. I thought Cam tried to pitch well, they just had some hits that blooped into spots that we weren’t at and we had a couple of errors.”

Rutledge had doubled in two runs in the third inning of the first game and Aaron Younge had made a big running catch in deep center field that turned into a double play to keep LA off the board in the third. But Hayfield left the bases loaded in the last two innings of the loss.

The Vikings had a total of just seven hits in 14 innings of baseball Tuesday.

“We need more than seven hits, but the big stat tonight was we struck out 23 times,” Krekling said. “We didn’t do what we’ve done all year and that was to put the ball in play. That’s our big motto is to put the ball in play and make them make plays and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Hayfield fell behind 3-0 in the top of the second inning of the first game without allowing a hit as the Cards (15-11 overall) loaded the bases with two walks and a hit batter. LA scored one run on a sacrifice fly and two more on a Hayfield error.

The Vikings pulled to within 5-3 in the second game when they scored two runs on a LA throwing error in the fifth, but they would do no more damage.

Krekling hopes the Vikings’ run to the Section 1A title game is remembered fondly by his team and he hopes it helps the program draw more players to the team in the future.

“If we would’ve told them at the beginning of the year they were going to be 18-7 and gone to the section championship, they would’ve taken it. It stings now, but they’ll look back on it and say ‘that was one heck of a year,’” Krekling said. “I hope it’s a momentum builder and I hope it’s a program builder for our numbers. I hope we keep growing and this is just the start of something big.”

Game 1

LA         0 0 0  0 3 0  1  —  4  9  2
Hayfield 0 0 2  0 0 0  0  —  2  3  4
Hayfield pitching: Cam Rutledge (L) 6 1/3 IP, 9 H, 2 BB, 4 R, 1 ER, 6 K, 1 HBP; Blake Risius, 2/3 IP, 0 R
Hayfield hitting: Rutledge, 2-for-3, double, 2 RBIs, SB, BB; Adam Younge, 1-for-2, BB; Andrew Becker, 0-for-2, BB, HBP; Ben Czaplewski, 0-for-4; Dominic Dublin, 0-for-3; Lane Canny, 0-for-3; Aaron Younge, 0-for-2, BB; Jax Bauer, 0-for-2, BB, R; Risius, 0-for-2, R, HBP, SB

Game 2

LA           3 0 2  0 0 0  0  —  5  7  1
Hayfield   1 0 0  2 0 0  0  —  3  4  2
Hayfield pitching: Adam Younge (L) 2/3 IP, 2 BB, 3 R, 1 ER, 2 HBP; Becker, 1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 ER, 2 K, 1 HBP; Risius, 1 1/3 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 0 R, 2 K; Adam Fjerstad, 4 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 0 R, 2 K
Hayfield hitting: Rutledge, 1-for-4; Adam Younge, 0-for-3; Becker, 0-for-1, 2 R, SB, 2 BBs; Risius, 1-for-3, double, RBI; Canny, 1-for-3; Dublin, 0-for-2, BB; Czaplewski, 0-for-1; Bauer, 1-for-3; Aaron Younge, 0-for-2; Brady Dahl, 0-for-1, BB; Jake Ruud, 0-for-1