Central finally figures out how to win some of its exciting finishes
Spectacular finishes have been the trademark of Duluth Central’s baseball team all season. But it took a while before the Trojans found a way to win some of those late turnarounds.
Central finally climbed up to the .500 mark at 5-5 this week by reversing things against Marshall on Wednesday and then pulling out a startling 5-3 victory with four runs in the seventh against Hermantown on Thursday.
“That’s the first time we’ve won two in a row all season,” said Central coach Dennis Walkowiak. “The Hermantown win was a big one for us, because the kids are starting to play better, and playing hard and smart for a full seven innings.
“We were down 3-1 and we only had two hits through six innings against Hermantown, but we got RBI-singles from Sam Lasky, Mike Milich and Kenny Kolquist to score four runs in the top of the seventh.
“That makes us 5-5, but until that game, if we had played six-inning games instead of seven we’d be 8-2.”
Until this week, Central’s trademark seemed to have been finding ways to snatch defeats from the jaws of victory.
“We were up 10-3 against Grand Rapids and lost 12-10,” said Walkowiak. “That was our second time outside the gym this spring. We made three errors in the seventh inning and lost 8-7 to Esko. We lost 9-7 to Chisago Lakes after we blew the lead. Then we were up at Two Harbors, leading 7-3 going into the last of the seventh, and we gave up five runs and lost 8-7. We’ve had some hard luck in the seventh inning.”
Not a good pattern. Not for a team that has designs on making a run for the sectional title — as do virtually all the teams in Section 7.
“This is one of the better teams I’ve had in my five years here,” said Walkowiak. “Two years ago, we had a team that went to the final four in the section, with Brett Nyquist and Kyle Tomaich leading us. They’re both playing for Saint Scholastica now.”
This team, however, could rise to that caliber in the coach’s mind. But first, a turnaround was required — to ease Walkowiak’s nerves, to say nothing of proving it could win the wild-finish games.
The obvious problem with such a late spring for Up North teams is they have to stay in the gym practicing, then they rush to try to cram as many games in when the nice weather finally comes. The result are some unpredictable games, but Walkowiak has used the splurge of games to develop some strong depth. “I go eight deep in pitching, and there’s not one big horse to ride,” he said. “We’ve got four or five guys who could win a big game for us in the section.”
Kolquist, a stylish shortstop, has been a solid pitcher, but Walkowiak prefers to leave him at short and try to use him as a closer, when necessary. In experimenting around, he tried catcher Ian McRae as a reliever once, and he gave McRae his first start against Marshall at Wade Stadium on Wednesday.
McRae responded with a hard-throwing combination of a live fastball and a curve that had the Marshall hitters bailing out. He struck out 15, and Central broke from a 2-2 tie to win 5-3.
But sophomore Ryan Hanna, a strong left-handed hitter who is the son of UMD baseball coach Scott Hanna, came through with a line drive single down the right-field line to drive in the go-ahead run, then Derek Battisti slid home ahead of a throw that never came to make it 4-2 after Shawn Senarighi drilled a double to the gap in left. McRae socked another one to the gap in right-center for another run and the Trojans had given McRae plenty to work with.
There was still plenty to work on. A couple of errors gave Marshall the chance to get back into it. And Kolquist ranged to his left for a nice play, but threw off-stride and off-speed to first to give the Hilltoppers a run. But Kolquist, a star hockey player at Central, came back to end the game with a rocket relay throw home in the seventh.
That made it a tough day for Marshall, which played its own doubleheader. Earlier Thursday, the Hilltoppers led Denfeld 7-3 before losing 8-7, then they came back and found themselves the victims of Central’s resurgence.
On Thursday, Hanna, a sophomore, was given the pitching start and he went four solid innings at Hermantown. Trailing 3-1, Kolquist came in to throw three shutout innings of relief and set the stage for the Trojans turnaround in the seventh.
“Right now, if I had to pick the guy who might be out top starting pitcher, it would be Ian McRae,” said Walkowiak. “But we’ve been getting so much good play from so many players. Shawn Senarighi is our most pleasant surprise, and our most improved player, by far. We’ve used him in the outfield and the infield, but he’s a senior who has kept working and is now hitting .389.
“McRae, who is strictly a hard-nosed player, is hitting .412, while Kolquist, Zach Smith and Eric McDonald are all hitting .382. Sam Lasky is only hitting .263, but he leads the team with 11 RBIs.”
The upcoming sectional playoffs are the target for Central, as for every other team. “We’ve got six points in sectional games so far, because we’re 2-1 against 7AA teams,” Walkowiak said. “Marshall and Hermantown don’t count, but they’re Lake Superior Conference games. We play Superior this weekend, and in Cloquet next Thursday.
“But then, starting with a game against East next Saturday, we’ve got a pretty wild schedule. On the following Tuesday we play East at Ordean at 4 p.m., and Hibbing at Wade at 7. Two days later, a week from Thursday, we play at Virginia, then Friday we play Denfeld. That means we’ve got 12 points at stake in seven days. A team could go from last to first, or from first to last, or stay last depending how they do in a stretch like that.”
The good news, for Central, is if those games come down to a major turnaround in the last inning, it now might just as likely be a positive result.
UMD baseball, softball done, but gridders head for Germany
The usual spring scramble of baseball and softball is finished at UMD, and the most active of the Bulldogs sports teams still in action is — the football team.
Coach Bob Nielson’s completed its spring game, but instead of putting the gear away until fall, they are preparing to load it up and head for Europe next week.
Nielson arranged with the German football federation to align the Bulldogs with a German club football team for two exhibition games, which will be played a week apart.
“NCAA rules allow a university to make one international trip in a four-year span,” said UMD athletic director Bob Corran. “Bob Nielson was over there and set this up. The trip gets some support from the German federation, and the players on the team did the rest. It has something to do with the start of the NFL-Europe league, and the team will be over there for 10 days. They’ll play the same club team at the start and end of the trip.”
No question, the trip will give Nielson a chance to further evaluate his players as a competitive extension of spring football.
The Bulldogs drew a good crowd to their spring game, which was won 12-3 by the Maroon team over the White. Chad Gerlach, a sophomore kicker, booted a 27-yard field goal to give the White team a 3-0 lead in the first half, but he kicked two field goals, from 27 and 34 yards, for the Maroon team in the second half. Freshman quarrterback Cody Marks hooked up with sophomore wide receiver Matt Sprester for a 54-yard touchdown play for the Maroon’s other points.
BASEBALL, SOFTBALL OVER
UMD’s softball team made a spirited bid for the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament title, but the Bulldogs fell to Concordia of St. Paul 8-2 in the final game. UMD made it through the winner’s bracket before losing a close game to Concordia, then had to come back to win one more game in order to get a final shot at unbeaten Concordia.
The men’s baseball team didn’t qualify for the NSIC tournament because it didn’t play enough games. An amazing run of bad weather cancellations afflicted the Bulldogs all season, and they ended up with a 9-11 record, which included a full month off because of postponements and cancellations.The Bulldogs wound up 4-0 at home and 5-7 away, with an 0-4 neutral field mark.
The 20 games played were the fewest since 1984, when UMD got in only 19 games, and finished 12-7. This season, six games were rescheduled after being postponed, but 27 others were postponed and became cancellations when they couldn’t be rescheduled.
At that, some individuals had strong seasons. Brett Spaeth hit .500 by collecting 32 hits in 64 at-bats, Ian O’Connell (.385), Brandon Broxey (.382), and Marty Spanish (.356) also had strong hitting seasons. Spaeth had five home runs and Spanish four. No pitcher had more than Jamie Swenson’s four decisions (2-2), with Ken Berglund and Nick Olmsteak both going 2-1.
ST. SCHOLASTICA SURGE
Saint Scholastica romped to victory in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference baseball tournament by thrashing Martin Luther 13-0 to earn a berth in this weekend’s NAIA Midwest Regional tournament at Sioux City, Iowa. The Saints are 32-8.
The Saint Scholastica women’s softball team didn’t fare quite as well, reaching the NAIA Regional III Northern Sectional championship game, only to lose 3-1 and 3-2 to Briarcliff of Sioux City. Briarcliff gets the automatic bid to advance to the NAIA Region III tournament this weekend in Bismarck, N.D., but the Saints also were expected to be invited as an at-large team because they had been ranked No. 2 in the region most of the season.
UWS SOFTBALL RISES
The Wisconsin-Superior softball team was host to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament last weekend, with the games played at Wheeler Field in Duluth. The Yellowjackets opened with a 4-2 victory over Platteville, then lost 7-6 to LaCrosse, before being eliminated by a 5-0 loss against Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Stevens Point won the title with a 2-1 final victory over LaCrosse.
But the season had to go down as an unqualified success for the Yellowjackets, who finished 18-20 for their first season under coach Roger Plachta. That may not be a spectacular record, until compared with UWS’s 4-29 mark from last season.
ROLF MAKES MEMORABLE TRIP
UMD volleyball coach Pati Rolf just returned from a trip she called an exceptional experience. “I got the chance to officiate at an exhibition tournament involving the U.S. National volleyball team, the Australian team, the Poland team and a U.S. pro volleyball team,” Rolf said.
“There were just four teams, but we had a barnstorming week. The U.S. pro team beat the U.S. National team in the final, with Poland third, and Australia fourth. The whole thing was taped and will be shown sometime this week on the Fox television network.”
The U.S. team, expected to be the nucleus of the next Olympic team, included Nicole Brannagh from the University of Minnesota and Lix Bachman of Lakeville.
Behning back from ‘retirement’ to play starring CSS softball role
This is only the second year coach Jen Walter has been at the College of Saint Scholastica, but she knew what she wanted from the first day of fall softball practice in her first year. Part of that was because Keely Behning showed up that first day.
Behning was an unknown to Walter, and for good reason. Consider their serpentine courses before arriving at the same place at the same time in the fall of 1999.
Walter had started out as a coach at Wadena, and later coached basketball at Breck and softball at Armstrong, as part of a coaching career that found her migrating to Saint Scholastica to take on the distinct challenge of making something out of the softball program, which had languished far behind Division II UMD and could see the UWS program becoming a power.
Behning was a star player at Duluth Central who had gone off to the University of Minnesota with the idea that she was moving onto a life after softball, and after three years, she transferred to Saint Scholastica for the school’s reknown physical therapy program. Although she hadn’t played softball seriously for three years, and had even dabbled in slow-pitch — the ultimate recreational game that signals an end to serious competitive softball in the minds of fast-pitch softballers — she missed the game.
“We had a great team my senior year at Central,” Behning recalled. “My senior year, we had the Trachsel sisters, Sarah Brady, and a lot of outstanding players. April Fritsch and I were the pitchers. But when I went to Minnesota, I thought I was ready to stop playing softball. I had three academic scholarships, and I wanted to go into kinesiology.
“I really missed the game, though. When I contacted the head of the physical therapy department at Saint Scholastica, I transferred here and got into it. On my first day here, I showed up for fall practice, and I’m sure Jen had no idea who I was.”
No, but she knew what she liked. And she saw the potential in Behning from the start.
“She walked on in the fall, and she hadn’t played for three years,” said Walter. “She had this big, looping swing from playing slow-pitch the last couple of years, but you could tell she had talent. We shortened her swing, and she has really improved.”
Behning claims she wasn’t a great hitter in high school, but she has become a sensational hitter. When Wisconsin-Superior beat Saint Scholastica 5-4 in 10 innings Tuesday, UWS coach Roger Plachta said he thought Behning was the best hitter in the area, and one of the best he’s ever seen.
Behning had two of the Saints three hits that day, which was pale in comparison to her performance Wednesday. She is the Saints center-fielder, but she pitched the first game of the doubleheader against Northland College of Ashland. The Saints beat the fledgling Northland club 12-0 in a game shortened to five innings. Behning had two home runs sandwiched around a double, and she pitched a no-hitter.
“I thought they had a hit or two,” Behning said afterward. “I’ve pitched a few games, but this was my second start. I throw a rise and a change-up, nothing too quick.
“I don’t think I’m hitting as well this year as I did last. Last year, I hit something like .358, and this year I’m only around .300, probably.”
She didn’t have any home runs last year, however, although she claimed that while inside-the-park homers are fine, she hit her first one over the fence against Northland.
“I know the three years off didn’t help much,” Behning said. “I was a decent hitter before, but I needed someone to point me in the right direction. I’ve found that, here. I had this real, long slow-pitch swing, and Jen videotaped me when I first came out last year. She said someday she’ll show me the videotape.”
Even though this is only Behning’s second year of college softball, she is in her last year of eligibility, because of going to college for five years and transfering. That makes her one of the elder statesmen of the rebuilding Saints team.
“We have four seniors, one junior, one sophomore and seven freshmen,” said Walter. The freshmen representing Walter’s first recruiting crop include third baseman April Makowski and second baseman Mara Anderson from Duluth, outfielder Lindsay Fisher from Bloomington, second baseman Angie Mergen from Richmond, Minn., pitcher Diana Steffen from Sandstone, and Rachel Piram, an outfielder from Annandale.
“This team is a lot more athletic this year,” said Behning. “It’s so young, so it’s got pretty far to go, but we have a great attitude, and the young players have a good work ethic.”
How far the Saints can go will be decided next weekend, when they host the Northern Sectional tournament. Saint Scholastica is a member of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, with Northland, Northwestern College of Roseville, Martin Luther of New Ulm, Minn., and Mount Senario, from Ladysmith, Wis. Those five teams and Briarcliff College of Sioux Falls, S.D., will compete in the Northern Sectional of the NAIA, which is a double-elimination tournament Friday and Saturday at the CSS field on Kenwood Av., and at UMD’s field, and the winner gains an automatic berth in the NAIA regional tournament, the following weekend in Bismarck, N.D.
Saint Scholastica, which finishes its UMAC schedule by going from Friday games against Martin Luther to a Sunday doubleheader at Mount Senario, is ranked No. 2 in the region, with Briarcliff 3, Mount Senario 4 and Northwestern 6.
“One of our goals was to go unbeaten in conference games,” said Walter, indicating pretty steep demands for a second-year coach. But players like Keely Behning wouldn’t have it any other way.
New signees run UMD incoming hockey freshman crop to 9
The UMD men’s hockey team will be significantly beefed up for next season, as coach Scott Sandelin announced his first full recruiting crop. Four forwards and two defensemen boost the total number of scholarship commitments to 11 for the Bulldogs, nine of whom are coming in the fall.
T.J. Caig, from Penticton of the British Columbia junior league, joins Marco Peluso of Bovey, who is playing for Lincoln of the USHL; Tim Hambly from White Bear Lake High School, who finished the season with Waterloo of the USHL; Bret Hammond of Roseville by way of the Green Bay USHL club; Shawn Vinz of Rochester’s USHL team; and Todd Smith, from Vernon in the British Columbia junior league all returned signed tenders during last week’s official signing period.
They join five players who had made earlier commitments — Cloquet’s Ryan Langenbrunner, who played at Waterloo, Tyler Brosz from the Olds team in the Alberta junior league, Luke Stauffacher from Green Bay in the USHL, and both Evan Schwabe and Neil Petruic, teammates at Kindersley in the Saskatchewan junior league.
Langenbrunner and Vinz are planning to return to their junior teams for another year of development.
Hambly, Petruic and Smith are all defensemen, while the rest are forwards.
“We don’t necessarily think that one recruiting class is going to raise us from last place to first place, but we do think that as our first recruiting class, these players will all complement what we have coming back,” said Sandelin. “We think we have a good blend of scorers and guys who can make plays. Steve Rohlik and Mark Strobel have worked hard to find guys who we think will play the way we want our team to play.
“And, we have a couple of 50-goal scorers in there,” Sandelin added. Brosz, who is from Medicine Hat, Alberta, scored 51 goals in the Alberta league, while Caig, who is from Kelowna, B.C., scored 46 goals in the British Columbia league, and added five more in playoffs to reach 51.
Schwabe, who is from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, is the cousin of Jim Archibald, former North Dakota star.
Petruic, who is from Regina, Saskatchewan, is the biggest of the bunch at 6-1, while Hambly is a lanky 6-0. The rest range from 5-8 to 5-11, but all are considered intensely competitive players. “We were looking for character, and I think every one of these players will give us that,” said Sandelin.
Sandelin also is planning a busy summer, with his first summer hockey camp running in three sessions, from July 22 through August 19. The first session, July 22-27, is for defensemen, ages 9-17; the second is an essential-skills camp, from July 29-August 4, also for ages 9-17; the third is a goaltending camp, Aug. 17-19 for Squirt, Peewee and Bantam ages. Day camp and overnight stays are available. Further information can be obtained from the UMD athletic department, at 726-8168, or toll-free at 1-877-221-8168.
Minnesota hockey players playing against the best
When the high school hockey season ends, there are all sorts of tournament gatherings for all-star selections from all across the state of Minnesota. But the neatest one of all might be the team put together every spring by Ted Brill of Grand Rapids for a trip to Chicago to play in the 24-team Chicago Showcase.
Being selected to any all-star or all-state team is an honor, but following the statewide “Great Eight” tournament for selected seniors from all over the state, Brill and his staff annually put together one 20-player team to take to Chicago, but what makes this team special is that the players are all among those so far overlooked by college recruiters, or undecided about their choices for the future.
The other 23 teams from all other hockey-playing states are made up of their best high school senior players, while the Minnesota team is the top seniors with the recruited seniors skimmed off, leaving only those who might benefit by getting exposed one more time to college recruiters. Obviously, eliminating the high school stars who have committed to college scholarships hasn’t bothered Team Minnesota in recent years.
This year’s team, which opens play in Chicago on Wednesday and hopes to be in the championship game Sunday afternoon, will be shooting for Minnesota’s fifth consecutive championship in the Chicago Showcase.
Brill and Dave Hendrickson, former Virginia High School coach, co-coach the team, which is comprised of players who competed in the recent Great Eight state all-star competition, and this year’s team carries a top-heavy assortment of players from the Duluth area and the Iron Range.
Goaltender Dan Hoehne, and forward Andy LeTourneau will represent Duluth East on the team. Section 7AA champion Greenway of Coleraine has defenseman Mike Dagel and forward Mike Forconi on the club. Section 7AA runnerup Cloquet has defenseman Clay Wilson selected. Section 2A champion Hermantown has defenseman Dan Knapp on the team, and Duluth Central forward Ken Kolquist, and Grand Rapids defenseman Grant Clafton are also on the club.
With eight of the 20 players from the Up North regions, other northern Minnesota players named to the club include Roseau forwards Luke Erickson and Erik Fabian of Roseau, Shawn Kleven, a forward from Crookston, plus Kirk Eilertson, a forward from Detroit Lakes.
Rounding out the team are goaltender Eric Aarnio of White Bear Lake, defensemen Adam Setten of Armstrong and Chris Nathe of state tournament champion Elk River, and forwards Aaron Johnson of Armstrong, Matt Duncan of Bloomington Jefferson, Jim Martin of Buffalo, and Cole Koidahl from Minneapolis South.
That means one of the two goaltenders, five of the seven defensemen and seven of the 11 forwards are Up North players, and nine of the 13 northern players are from the Iron Range-Duluth area.
The team assembled for practice sessions in the Twin Cities last weekend, and it played an exhibition game Monday afternoon, beating the North Dakota representative 4-0, as Hoehne and Aarnio split the goaltending for the shutout.
After traveling to Chicago Tuesday, the tournament begins with round-robin play within pools at the Seven Bridges Arena in suburban Chicago on Wednesday. Minnesota’s team opens by facing Missouri on Wednesday, and will then play Buffalo, N.Y., on Thursday, and Wisconsin on Friday. The top eight teams will then be grouped for quarterfinals on Saturday, with semifinals Sunday and the championship game on Sunday afternoon.
About the Author
John Gilbert is a lifetime Minnesotan and career journalist, specializing in cars and sports during and since spending 30 years at the Minneapolis Tribune, now the Star Tribune. More recently, he has continued translating the high-tech world of autos and sharing his passionate insights as a freelance writer/photographer/broadcaster. A member of the prestigious North American Car and Truck of the Year jury since 1993. John can be heard Monday-Friday from 9-11am on 610 KDAL(www.kdal610.com) on the "John Gilbert Show," and writes a column in the Duluth Reader.
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