Baseball

Three Rivers All-Conference Baseball

Caledonia (15-0, 19-3) ran the table in the TRC, winning the East over La Crescent/Hokah (12-3, 18-7), Winona-Cotter (9-6, 12-9), Lewiston-Altura (8-7, 9-12), Rushford-Peterson (4-11, 10-15), and Fillmore Central/Lanesboro (0-15, 1-20) while Dover-Eyota (8-6, 13-8) and PEM (8-6, 10-11) shared the West over Chatfield (7-7, 9-11), St. Charles (5-9, 7-13), and Wabasha-Kellogg (4-9, 6-14). The league winning/sweeping Warriors get seven All-TRC picks in Garrett Konz (Jr. P/1B), Hunter Goetzinger (Sr. C), Ben Stemper (Sr. CF), Drew Yahnke (Sr. P/1B), Owen Denstad (Sr. SS), Reid Klug (Jr. P/3B), and Landon O’Heron (So. P/RF). Konz repeats as All-TRC after maybe being the Warriors’ best combination of pitcher and hitter. He hit a team third-best .357 with five doubles and two home runs, driving in 13 runs while scoring a team-best 28 times. On the mound, he tossed a team second-best 35 innings (4-2 record, 29 H, 19 R, 12 ER, 17 BB, 46 K, 2.40 ERA). He made the All-Section team. Goetzinger was second on the team hitting .369 with a team-best nine doubles plus 15 RBI. Goetzinger’s typical courtesy runner, Jack Schmitz, scored a team second-best 24 times. From his catcher position, Goetzinger helped the Warrior pitching staff post a team ERA of 1.315 and he had just three passed balls for the season. He is going to play baseball at Augsburg in college. Stemper led the team in hitting at .373 with 18 RBI and 16 runs scored. Denstad led the team with 21 RBIs (.226 average, 9 runs). Yahnke was second with 20 RBI while tossing 26 1/3 innings (4-0 record, 16 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 13 BB, 28 K, 1.329 ERA). O’Heron led the team in innings pitched (44) and strikeouts (53) while going 5-1 on the mound (34 H, 9 R, 6 ER, 15 BB, .955 ERA). Klug tossed 26 2/3 innings (4-0 record, 12 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 9 BB, 30 K, .263 ERA) while hitting .310 (one HR, 10 RBI). Making All-TRC HM for Caledonia were Tanner Ginther (Jr. 2B > .257 average, 12 RBI, 18 R) and Will Allen (So. OF > .273 average, 7 RBI, 14 R, 15 2/3 IP, 2-0 record, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 17 BB, 18 K, 1.787 ERA). Said guys led the Warriors on a spectacular 19-game win streak. Chatfield gets four All-TRC picks, Jack Dornack (Sr. C), Caden Boyum (Sr. P/SS), Kail Schott (Sr. OF), and Westin Nolte (Jr. 1B/P). Dornack led the team with a .492 average, amassing seven doubles and a team-high 16 RBI. The senior was also All-Section. He was All-TRC HM last year. Boyum was their most used pitcher (42 1/3 IP, 3-5 record, 44 H, 50 R, 26 ER, 36 BB, 56 K, 4.299 ERA) while leading the team in runs scored with 21 (.282 average, 6 RBI). Schott hit .311 with 9 RBI and 8 runs. He repeated as All-TRC. Nolte hit a team-second-best .328 (HR, 8 RBI, 12 R) while also pitching 23 innings (1-3 record, 26 H, 19 R, 13 ER, 11 BB, 19 K, 3.957 ERA). The Gophers All-TRC HM pick is Cole Ramaker (Jr. P/IF > team second-best 26 2/3 IP, 4-0 record, 20 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 15 BB, 14 K, team-best 1.838 ERA). Rushford-Peterson lasted the longest of all the ‘Journal-covered’ baseball teams, making their section’s final four. Jonah Bunke is their sole All-TRC pick. He led the team in hitting (.434), doubles (10), and runs scored (26) while hitting a home run and driving in a team second-best 16 runs. He also pitched 27 innings (2-2 record, 28 H, 21 R, 10 ER, 4 BB, 24 Ks, 2.593 ERA). The Trojans did not have an All-TRC HM pick. Bunke and Rylan Schneider (.316 average, five 2Bs, team-high 20 RBI, 14 R, team-high 60 IP, 4-7 record, 75 H, 45 R, 34 ER, 16 BB, 51 Ks, 3.967 ERA) made All-Section. Fillmore Central/Lanesboro’s lone All-TRC pick is Thomas Pikula (So. OF/P). Levi Rogers (So. P/1B) made All-Section.

Southeast All-Conference Baseball

State representative Lyle/Pacelli (13-1, 23-4) and Southland (13-1, 21-3) dominated the Southeast Conference in baseball with Spring Grove (9-5, 15-9), Houston (7-7, 9-12), GMLOK (6-8, 6-15), and Mabel-Canton (6-8, 7-16) taking third, fourth, fifth, and sixth places. Glenville-Emmons (2-12, 3-18) and Schaeffer Academy (0-14, 0-15) rounded out the league standings. Spring Grove has a trio of All-SEC selections, Jaxon Strinmoen (Sr. P/IF/OF), Ben Udstuen (Jr. SS/P) and Brandon Jahnke (Jr. IF/P). Strinmoen, now a three-time All-SEC honoree, was the most-used pitcher (6-2 record, 55 1/3 IP, 46 H, 22 R, 13 ER, 15 BB, 38 K, 1.65 ERA) while leading the Lion staff in wins, saves (two) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.53). He led SG in fielding percentage (1.000), broke the program’s career base-stealing record, was the third leading hitter with a .304 average and had the fewest strikeouts in the batting order. Jahnke, All-SEC for a second season, led the Lions in batting average (.329) and RBI (19). He was the third most-used pitcher (3-2 record, 24 1/3 IP, 14 H, 10 R, 8 ER, 20 BB, 25 K, 2.30 ERA). Udstuen led the team with 25 runs scored and had the second-best batting average at .314 and was the second most-active pitcher (4-5 record, 44 1/3 IP, 35 H, 31 R, 19 ER, 30 BB, 41 K, 3.00 ERA) wwhile leading the staff in strikeouts. Receiving HM All-SEC for a third year was Ezra Griffin (Jr. C > .246 average, team-high six extra base hits, two HR, 18 RBI, 22 BBs).

Mabel-Canton gets three All-SEC picks, Cayden Tollefsrud (Sr. P/C/SS), Issac Underbakke (So. SS/P), and Tyler Larson (Jr. C/P). Tollefsrud earned his fourth All-SEC nod in baseball, the only player on this year’s list with so many. He hit .269 with four doubles, two triples, 13 RBI, and a team-high-tying 17 runs. The senior was also the Cougars most often used pitcher (50 1/3 IP, 3-6 record, 38 H, 32 R, 17 ER, 20 BB, 63 K, 2.702 ERA). Underbakke was the team’s top hitter with a .370 average (12 RBI, team-high-tying 17 runs). He also pitched the second highest number of innings (32 2/3 IP, 2-4 record, 40 H, 37 R, 23 ER, 24 BB, 41 K, 5.633 ERA). Larson was their second-best hitter with a .368 average while leading the squad with 15 RBI plus scoring 13 runs and tossing 28 2/3 innings (0-3 record, 38 H, 41 R, 19 ER, 22 BB, 16 K, 5.302 ERA). Kale Tollefsrud (So. OF > .265 average, 14 runs) made All-SEC HM. Houston got two All-SEC picks in Morgan Rohweder (Jr. P/SS) and Zach Olson (Jr. OF). Rohweder led the team in hitting (.429), RBI’s (27), and on-base-plus slugging (1.066) while hitting seven doubles, a home run, and scoring 13 runs. On the mound, he tossed a team-high 49 2/3 innings (50 H, 33 R, 21 ER, 15 BB, 87 Ks, 2.960 ERA). Olson hit a team second-best .371 with a team-high eight doubles and 23 runs scored plus 14 RBI. Logan Olson (Jr. IF > .264 average, 8 RBI, 7 runs) made All-SEC HM for Houston. GMLOK’s sole All-SEC pick is Connor Tangen (Sr. IF/P). An All-SEC HM pick last year, the senior was GMLOK’s most used pitcher, throwing 25 innings in SEC play (2-3 record, 26 K). He hit .512 in league game with five doubles, two home runs, and 12 RBI. Tangen also made the All-Section 1AA team. Noah Mundfrom (Sr. C/P > .489 average, five 2Bs, 3B, HR, 16 RBI, 16 IP, 2-1 record, 20 Ks, 10 ER in SEC games) made All-SEC HM. He threw out 12 potential base stealers. Lyle/Pacelli’s All-SEC picks were Hunter VaDeer (Jr. P/OF), Landon Meyer (Jr. IF), Isaac Nelsen (Sr. OF/P), Logyn Brooks (Jr. C/P), and Dana Schara (Sr. IF/P). Southland’s All-SEC picks were Travis Kirtz (Sr. 1B/P), Riley Jax (SR. P/OF), Tyson Stevens (Jr. IF/P), and Jonas Wiste (Sr. C/P). Neither Schaeffer or G-E/AC had an pure All-SEC pick.

*Houston headshots by Emma Geiwitz, Mabel-Canton by Heather Kleiboer, GMLOK by Christine Vreeman, and Spring Grove by Lee Epps.

*The Fillmore County Journal Sports page is a written collaboration of Paul Trende and Lee Epps.