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3 area teams making the trip to state tourney

Lamberton’s Nick Altermatt beats out the throw to first during a playoff game in Stark.

GIBBON — Prior to the 2017 amateur baseball season, the Gibbon Reds were considered a longshot to qualify for the Region 2C playoffs, let alone the state tournament.

Oh, how quickly things can change in amateur baseball.

The Reds knocked off the New Ulm Brewers in the first round to surprise a lot of people associated with the sport, then lost their first two games of the Region 2C playoffs.

At that point, the Reds were all but eliminated. But four-straight wins later, they qualified for the community’s first trip to the state tournament since 1964.

The Reds will play at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Green Isle against Faribault.

While the Reds are new to state tournament competition, the town of Gibbon has been waiting for this moment since the team began play in 2005. That 2005 team ended a 30-year drought without town-team baseball in Gibbon.

“We had 271 paid attendance at our game on Sunday [the Region 2C tiebreaker game against Stark],” manager/player Ryan Panning said. “We average 200-some per home game, it’s kind of fun for everyone. They enjoy being down there and we enjoy having them. It’s a fun atmosphere. We get a lot of people to come down, they come down to socialize, they don’t always come down for the baseball, but there’s still people there and if you have a good game, they’re more into it.

“It makes it more fun to go down to the ballpark when you’ve got people watching. There’s something about it that just gets you more into it.”

The Reds have become more and more competitive since their early years when they struggled to get many wins over the course of the season. The lineup has become more stable and that has led to more success.

“We’ve had pretty much the same team for the last couple of years here, the big thing is we have guys that are able to make more games,” said Panning, a 2007 Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop graduate. “They were able to get more reps and you get a more consistent lineup that way.”

Offensively, the Reds are led by Justin Schwecke’s .306 batting average. He has a team-high four home runs and 21 RBIs prior to last Saturday’s game. Jon DeRock is hitting .312 with seven stolen bases and Nolan Huiras is hitting .250. Kyle Maurer is hitting .284 with 24 RBIs.

The Reds as a team are hitting .265.

“We do a little bit of everything, we’ve got a really good hitting lineup I believe, I think if you ask around the [Tomahawk East] league, they’ll tell you that,” Panning said. “We’re pretty solid throughout the lineup. We got some people with some speed and we can play a little smallball. And we play in Gibbon, that’s 270 down the left field line and we hit a couple of home runs, so we got some people that can do it all.”

Pitching-wise, DeRock is 4-3 with a 2.75 ERA. The team features draftees Alan Woitas (Sleepy Eye), Jordan Guggisberg (Essig) and Dayton Larson (Hanska).

“Jon’s been our ace this year. Our ace from last year hurt his arm and Jon stepped up and he’s been throwing really well this year,” Panning said. “Jordan Guggisberg has been doing a really good job for us and Wade Werner is kind of our junk baller, he’s kept us in a lot of games over a lot of years. Sam Van Hon hasn’t thrown that many innings because he lives in the metro and he’s been gone but when he’s there and if he’s on, he’s pretty good too.”

Woitas and Larson are two draftees that give the Reds some valuable state tournament experience.

Panning said that although it’s the team’s first trip to state, the Reds are ready for Saturday.

“You can tell, the team is just really confident,” Panning said. “Even when we were down 0-2 [in the Region playoffs], everyone knew that we could compete and no one ever gets too down.”

Springfield Tigers

After a quick exit in last year’s state tournament, the Springfield Tigers return with a lineup that features quite a few former and current college players that have started to play well at the right time.

The Tigers met the defending state champion Plato in last year’s tournament in the first round. The Tigers lost that game, but many of the players are back with another year of amateur baseball under their belt.

“We got up there and played the state champion from the year before in Plato, we had some young kids on the team and they’ve had some pretty good success in high school,” manager Steve Helget said. “It takes a little while to build a good amateur team.”

The Tigers have a mix of players with state tournament experience at various levels, including high school, Legion baseball and amateur baseball. While the team is still relatively young, there are some veterans who played in college that are making an impact this year.

All of that big-game experience — plus some key mid-season additions — has the Tigers thinking of a deeper run at this year’s tournament.

“I think they’re set to go up there and do something,” Helget said. “We have a guy like Sam Baier who just played his freshman year at Augustana and he played with the Duluth Huskies [in the Northwoods League, a college all-star summer league] and he can hit, run and he can field it. At the beginning of the year, we didn’t have him or Alex [Fink], who played some pro ball in Illinois this summer. Fortunately both decided to come back and help us.”

The Tigers feature a potent lineup with half of the lineup hitting better than .400 on the season. The rotation is also taking shape, led by Brandon Wilhelmi.

“He’s probably pitched more innings this year just because Shawn Anderson has been gone with his work,” Helget said. “Those two have been the leaders of the pack and now you throw in Cole Milbrath and Sam throws some. We drafted Kasey Kuck of Searles, Branden Flock of Leavenworth and Adam Sellner from Stark, so they all have a role for us. They’re all excited to play for us and hopefully we can make a run.”

With the taste of the state tournament in their mouths from last year, the Tigers are hungry for more.

“We’re going up there with a different mindset, last year we were happy to be there and this year we’ve got some leaders that have been there before,” Helget said.

Lamberton Long Sox

The Long Sox (29-5) are back at the tournament and open the tournament at noon on Sunday, Aug. 27, against the winner of Green Isle and Regal.

The team’s hitting stats immediately jump out. They’re hitting .358 as a team and the lineup is once again filled with a combo of power and speed.

Johnny Pistulka is hitting .491 with four home runs and 37 RBIs. Colby Pack is hitting .414 with six home runs and 32 RBIs and Christopher Eichten is hitting .424 with 15 RBIs. Blake Altermatt is hitting .324 and Neil Eichten is also having a big season, with a .366 average and three home runs. Holden Salfer is hitting .464 and Nick Altermatt is hitting .552 in a somewhat-limited role for the team.

Pistulka is 9-1 with a 1.33 ERA and has struck out 129 batters in 74 innings. Shane Schoberg is 10-1 with a 1.71 ERA and the team has Wade French as a draftee from New Ulm, Sean Mathiowetz as a draftee from Stark and Kyle Pinke from St. James.

Lamberton has had some tough draws in the first round of the tournament in recent years — losing to the champion in the first round two-straight years — and that has made for an early exit. The team is hoping it changes in 2017 with many veterans back both at the plate and on the mound.

“We’re trying to play the game the same way we have been all year,” manager/player Derrick Jenniges said. “We’re hoping we can score a run early and maybe get a ball that bounces your way.”

While the Long Sox have had tough draws, they’re certainly a team that is capable of going quite far in the tournament and are regarded by many as a team to watch.

“I guess it’s somewhat humbling, but really it’s all about matchups and we have a tough draw,” Jenniges. “You have to show up and beat them and hopefully we can get some guys on base early and bunt some guys up. We trust that we have deep enough pitching and we feel that our defense has come a long way.”

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