File photo by Travis Rosenau Quintyn Vold pitches for the Lamberton Long Sox during a Tomahawk East League amateur baseball game against the New Ulm Brewers on May 26 at Johnson Park in New Ulm.

LAMBERTON — In 24 seasons of being an organized amateur baseball team, the Lamberton Long Sox are about to play in their 12th Class C Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament this Friday.

While the Long Sox (18-9) haven’t had too many wins to talk about in their 11 prior state appearances, Long Sox manager Derrick Jenniges knows a lot has changed since the team’s last state appearance in 2020.

“I’d be lying to you if I told you we had a ton of success in the state tournament,” he said. “We haven’t. In the 11 previous trips, I think we won three games and one stretch three years in a row we played the champion in the first round.

“We’ve had some tough draws and we’ve felt like we had some draws where we had a chance to win and we didn’t pitch well enough or didn’t hit well enough, whatever the case may be. With a whole different crop of kids, they don’t really know any of that.”

With that new crop of players and a hunger to get back to the state tournament, the Long Sox won their way back to state in the elimination bracket this year with a 5-3 state-qualifying win over Springfield this past Friday. The Long Sox ended up falling to Leavenworth in the Region 2C third-place game Saturday to finish with the fourth state seed from Region 2C.

The Long Sox will make their return to the state tournament at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Gaylord at Walsh Field against the Paynesville Pirates, who took down the Farming Flames 14-9 on Saturday to win the Region 8 title and punch their state ticket for the first time since 2021.

In the Pirates’ win over the Flames, the Pirates racked up 17 hits, led by the bat of Sam Oehrlein, who was 4 for 6 with an RBI. Grayson Fuchs also was 3 for 4 with a homer for the Pirates in the win, while Reed Johnson was 3 for 5 and Grady Fuchs was 3 for 6 with a double and team-high five RBIs.

“What we know about Paynesville is they weren’t supposed to win their region,” Derrick Jenniges said. “They came into their region tournament as a play-in team and they got hot at the right time and won four straight games to get through their region, which it’s a good region. Keep in mind, it doesn’t mean anything now. The team they had before isn’t the team they show up with on Friday because we fully expect them to have a drafted pitcher. I believe his name is Austin VerSteeg, he’s a Starbuck [Stars] guy. He’s been a good pitcher in that region for several years, so that changes the whole game.”

Pitcher draft aside, Derrick Jenniges said the Long Sox have been in that position before and he knows how important showing up and doing what got them to dance will be.

“You gotta show up, you gotta do the little things to be competitive and give yourself a chance,” he said. “You’ve gotta have good quality at-bats … you’ve gotta keep the ball in play, force the defense to make some plays. Bunt when you need to, run the bases the right way, and obviously you’ve gotta throw strikes and play defense.

“But those things are probably our strengths, so for us it’s probably about coming up with two our three hits with two outs to drive in a run and try to get three, four runs and hope that pitching and defense can hold you from there.”

Getting some of those key hits could come from several different batters as six players are hitting over .300. Eli Fest leads the team with a .378 batting average, while Luke Willhite is hitting .330 with 10 doubles and 13 RBIs and Hudsen Jenniges is hitting .333 with 17 RBIs. Neil Eichten is hitting .313 with 18 RBIs for the Long Sox also, while Josh Altermatt is hitting .305 with 10 doubles and 16 RBIs and Will Carlson is hitting .303 with 10 RBIs.

The Long Sox’s last state appearance in 2020 was a 2-1 loss to Union Hill in 10 innings in Springfield.

“Maybe three of our guys in our lineup played in 20,” Derrick Jenniges said. “For me, being around forever, it’s kind of another thing, kind of what you expect to do. But for some of our younger guys who haven’t been a part, that is a pretty special moment the other night [clinching the state berth]. Pretty good experience and they’re really excited and looking forward to the opportunity.”

After making it to the state tournament seven years in a row from 2012 to 2018, Lamberton is looking to get a state streak going again and expand on it with wins. With many experienced players and a crop of young talent joining the team over the past few years, the Long Sox could very well see that happen.

Derrick Jenniges’ brother Isaac Jenniges will be the oldest player for Lamberton in the lineup Friday night as he mans second base at 42 years old, while the youngest in the lineup will be 18-year-old Hudsen Jenniges.

As for Friday’s game, Derrick Jenniges plans to send the left-handed Eli Fest to the mound for the start.

“Eli is a great competitor,” Derrick Jenniges said. “He’s able to throw pitches for strikes, he’s fairly efficient, he’s able to locate his fastball, change speeds on his breaking ball if he has to and he’s just been a fantastic addition to our team in the last four years.”

Fest hasn’t been able to pitch as much this summer for the Long Sox as he has in prior years, but Derrick Jenniges said he’s been solid when he’s been with the team and is getting stronger as he’s gotten more work in August.

Fest has a 4-1 record this season in 51 innings of work with a 1.94 ERA and 67 strikeouts.

Quintyn Vold and Austin Imker has also been quality arms for the Long Sox this year.

Vold is 6-2 in 77 innings with a 1.99 ERA and 115 strikeouts, while Imker is 4-2 in 26 innings with a 1.38 ERA and 35 strikeouts.

Lamberton will also have a few extra arms to rely on following the Region 2C tournament pitcher draft, which gave each of the four state teams from Region 2C a total of three pitchers to draft to their team for state. Lamberton selected Sacred Heart’s Jack Howard with the fourth overall pick, Stark’s Adam Sellner with the eighth overall pick and Searles’ Casey Lux with the 12th and final pick.