(ABC 6 News) — A special opportunity to play where the pros play, Target Field opening its doors for the first of six high school games over the course of the season as a part of their High School Baseball Series. The first game featuring talent from southeast Minnesota.

Bears and Tigers was not the original plan according to Stewartville head coach Tyler Schmitz. “It was actually someone from Century, Jeff Moline, reached out. We were supposed to play them there, and it kind of fell through.”
and when the panthers had to bow out, coach Schmitz knew exactly who to call.

Jordan bale and the Byron bears. The two have a great relationship going back to playing against each other even back in high school for the teams they now coach.

“As we got into college, he started playing on their amateur team. I started playing on our amateur team. And then eventually he took over the job at Byron, and I took over the job here in Stewartville. So we’ve just kind of stayed connected. “

and from there the excitement would build. Some of the news getting out to the Byron players before coach Bale could brake the news

“I was sitting there in English, just scrolling through Twitter, not paying attention, and I saw it was leaked on Twitter, and I was really confused. And I was like, wait, that’s us. And then I realized that that’s actually real and it’s happening.” Said Evan Hain about discovering the news.

 “You know, the guys sitting next to me on the English class were really mad at me because I wouldn’t shut up about it because I was so excited.”

The two conference rivals now stepping onto a field many of them dream of playing on. Stewartville’s Jayce Klug, lucky enough to earn the starting nod.
“A once in a lifetime experience that I doubt many of us will get, if any of us will get again. Just playing here hopefully we can make our way back later in the spring, but just a wonderful experience having fun doing what we love playing baseball.”

 Will Brian earned the start for the Bears and shared a similar sentiment. “Just awesome to be a part of such a good game like this, a really close game down to the wire, and again just awesome to play here and be a part of it.” 

A small handful of players pitch at target field, even less hit home runs, the number for inside the park home runs is even smaller, but you can add Jacob Young from Stewartville to the list

“I got past the center fielder. That’s all I was going through in my head was inside the park. That helped a lot for sure. Got it on the bases pretty quick, I’d say. “

The tigers may have left with less runs on the scoreboard.. but a lifetime of memories with teammates still feels like quite the win

“Again just crazy to have this once in a lifetime experience with my guys in a place like this is really special”