Haugen boasts rich baseball history

Continuing to play in the Independent League over nearly 80 years of its existence, baseball history dates back earlier for Haugen as team photos from the 1900s can be viewed at the Haugen Area Historical Museum.

When amateur baseball returned to the area in 1947 following World War II, the Barron County Baseball League was formed with Haugen a charter member, and the community has fielded a team every year since but one.

Haugen joins Independent loopTwo years after the forming of the Barron County Baseball League, the Independent League debuted with just four teams. Then Haugen made the switch to the Independent League in 1952 where its baseball teams have played over all these years.

In its first year playing in the Independent loop, Haugen was named the league champion and advanced to the Wisconsin Baseball Association tournament. Rainouts earlier in the season put a bit of a cloud on Haugen’s title though. A week prior to the state tournament, with a 9-2 record, Haugen sat a half-game up on Campia, but had several unplayed games.

“Whether Haugen can actually make the tourney trip may depend upon a scramble this week to arrange playoffs of several games rained out in the early season,” The Chronotype reported. “Haugen has unplayed games with Canton, Silver Lake and Campia, and if defeated in one of them might still lose their championship. Campia, however, would also have to play either Haugen or Rice Lake, and win that contest, if they expect to gain the lead.”

Haugen went on to demolish Silver Lake 23-4 later that week and at a meeting were “formally certified” as the loop’s representative for the 1952 state tournament in Milltown.

In their first game in Milltown, Haugen was dropped 13-6 by Ashland as the local nine had trouble holding onto a wet ball. There was a 30-minute rain delay when Ashland was up 6-5. When play resumed, “Drew succeeded Christopherson on the mound for Haugen in the sixth, but was equally unable to keep up with the rash of errors committed behind him.”

Barron County League representative, Cumberland, went on to win the class B championship, led by Al Peer’s one-hit shutout in a 13-0 title game victory over Washburn.

After returning from the state tournament, Haugen had a chance to put an exclamation point on its Independent League title with a game against Campia. Playing at the newly-built but still rough diamond at Little Joe’s, Campia slugged three home runs to take down Haugen 14-1 for a tie atop the standings.

“The victory in a game postponed from early season play gives Campia a tie with Haugen for the league lead, and a good foundation for claims to the championship in stoveside arguments this winter,” The Chronotype reported.

Hounds make their runIn the first few decades of the WBA state tournament, Haugen’s best chance to win a title came in 1965. It was an all-Barron County championship game as the Haugen Hounds took on the Barron Cubs in the class B tournament in Cornell.

“The Cubs of Butter City downed their neighbor to the north,” reported The Chronotype following Barron’s 11-3 victory.

The Hounds had reached the WBA tournament after winning an Independent League playoff. They were 8-2 in league play and 10-3 overall that season, but it was reported as a surprising run for the Hounds. Haugen had triumphed 7-3 over host Cornell and then got a 9-5 victory over Sheldon to reach the title contest.

“The Haugen Hounds, cheered on by almost every resident of the Barron County village, spotted Sheldon three runs in a shaky first inning Sunday afternoon, then came back to rap the Chippewa Valley entry, 9 to 5,” The Chronotype reported.

In the championship game, Barron had 11 hits, including four from Jim Sevals, who was a home run short of the cycle. Haugen had scored first with a sacrifice fly from Tom Jilek, but a six-run second from the Cubs staked them to a lead.

Haugen centerfielder Ed Zalesky and pitcher Dave Cizek were both on the all-tournament team. Barron had Sevals named the tournament MVP, while also on the all-tournament team for the Cubs were Steve Sevals, Ron McIntyre, Curly Severson, a Prairie Farm draftee, and Denny O’Melia, drafted from Exeland, who won the top pitcher award.

Knights deliver Haugen a title

Haugen’s team was renamed the Hawks for the 1968 season and later was known as the Pirates. In the 1980s is when Haugen first boasted two teams. The Haugen nine took on the Knights name in 1984 and four years later a second team formed, known as the Hornets.

The Knights made state tournament appearances in 1991 and 1995, which included a top-four finish in 1991. Over a 15-year span from 2006 through 2021, the Knights reached the state finals 10 times, including winning the only two Haugen WBA titles.

A year after finishing runner-up in 2009 while playing at their home ballpark, the Knights did one better at Tomahawk in 2010 by winning the village’s first championship. In the title game the Knights doubled up Onalaska 8-4 with Donovan Stone, a draftee from Stanberry, pitching eight innings. Dan Lindsay pitched the final inning to secure the title. Lindsay had pitched all 10 innings of a 2-1 win over Plum City in the quarterfinals and three innings of relief in an 11-3 win in the semis over Sparta as he was named the MVP of the tournament. The bats for the Knights delivered 16 hits, including four from Travis Thompson, who was named the top offensive player of the tournament. He was a combined 8-for-16 in the three games.

The Knights finished 22-8 overall that season, which included the regular season Independent League title.

{p class=”p1”}”When it came to tournament time, those guys played hard,” said Howard Thompson, who was on the first Knights’ team in ‘84 and an assistant coach for the 2010 squad.

{p class=”p1”}From 2012 through 2018 the Knights reached the state finals tournament five times but it was a special run in 2021 that delivered a second championship to Haugen. A combined 22 runs gave the Knights plenty of offense to go 2-0 in pool play at a regional held at Haugen Ball Park. The wins over Whitehall and Merrill qualified the Knights for the finals at Marshfield.

{p class=”p1”}After a 7-2 win over the Eau Claire Bears and 14-4 victory over the Osseo Merchants, the Knights were in the semifinals. The offense continued to produce in a 12-4 win against the Holmen Features to reach the title game.

{p class=”p1”}It was an all-Indy championship as the Knights met the Spooner Cardinals. Haugen needed to rally late to earn their second championship. Trailing by a run in the eighth, Darek Dieckman delivered a two-run double to take the lead. Spooner loaded the bases with one out in the ninth but James Palmer got a strikeout and infield pop out to shortstop Cole Paulson to secure the title. Travis Thompson was named the tournament’s top pitcher with Rob Berger the offensive MVP. The Knights also had Brady Verbsky win an award for the best defensive player.

Hornets create a buzz

With the Knights established earlier in the ‘80s there was still plenty of baseball talent to go around. Joe Juza had his playing days end after 1981 and he was coaching youth baseball. As the years passed and his players grew older he was looking for more playing opportunities. In 1988 there was no American Legion team for Rice Lake and Juza felt his young crop of players could handle the test of the Independent League. The team was made up of mostly high schoolers with two who had just graduated that spring.

“The Knights were established and I felt there was a good talent,” said Juza.

The Hornets were .500 the first season but as the players grew older the Hornets began to climb the standings. The team finished 9-5 in their second season and just missed out on qualifying for the playoffs. After reaching the WBA postseason in 1990 for the first time, the Hornets went on to qualify in eight straight years. The Hornets had state finals appearances in 1993 and 2001.

“They loved the game,” Juza said. “They were committed to it. We started out with 13 guys and I never had to worry about being short at a game. The commitment was really good.”

At a time when there were two divisions, the Hornets won Independent League West Division titles in 1991, 1993 and 1994. In 1999, 2004 and 2005 the team was Independent League champion.

{p class=”p1”}”I would say it wasn’t so much the coaching but the talent I had to coach,” said Juza. “A coach is as good as his players are.”

The 1993 season saw the Hornets take the West Division title at 10-4 and entered the WBA regional to be held at Haugen seeking their first trip to the finals. On their home diamond, which was the first WBA tournament ever held at Haugen Ball Park, the Hornets routed La Crescent 10-4 and then Chaseburg-Coon Valley 11-6. Dan Smet hit a two-run home as part of three straight extra-base hits in a five-run sixth inning of the title game. Dave Juza pitched 4.2 innings of scoreless relief to get the win.

At Abbotsford for the WBA finals, the Hornets were knocked out by the host team by a 4-3 score. Abbotsford had scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning. The Hornets had nine hits and drew three walks but stranded seven runners. Haugen finished the year 20-10 that season.

The Hornets played through the 2015 season before folding. After three years without a team a new crop of young players emerged to join the league in 2019. After four seasons the Hornets were unable to field a team again and Haugen has had one team in each of the last two seasons.

Hosting tournaments

Haugen has perennially been a site of WBA tournaments in the last three decades which has included state finals but wasn’t always a top-notch diamond. With ball fields located around the village ranging from cow pastures and sand lots in the early days, the current site opened in 1961 with telephones poles and chicken wire used to form the backstop. It was in 1977 that the village put money toward a chain-linked fence for the backstop and an outfield fence. A pavilion was then constructed in the early ‘80s.

In 1989 the Hornets and Knights joined forces to establish the Haugen Ball Park Association as they worked to make yearly improvements to the facility. A new concession stand, bathrooms and dugouts were built in 1990, and a roof over the bleachers was added two years later.

A three-year fundraising effort was held as Haugen Ball Park had stadium lights installed in 1995. The lights were first used during a game between the Hornets and Knights with fans having hankies stating: “I got lit-up in Haugen.”

Updates to the ballpark have continued with in-ground dugouts built ahead of the 2024 season and new fencing added around the dugouts this year. Joe Juza said the next project slated is updating the bullpens.

When hosting tournaments in Haugen, funds raised get split between the team and ballpark association.

Haugen Ball Park will again be the site of a WBA regional this year Aug. 8-10. While the tournament is still a few weeks away, the next time Haugen ballplayers will be in action at home is Wednesday night with first pitch against the rival Brill Millers at 7:30 p.m.