The Lakers, after falling in the semifinals last year, are ranked No. 1 after the two teams that made last year’s state championship game — the Le Sueur Braves and the Pierz Lakers — moved up to Class B. The Cubs, who were ranked at the top of Class C for much of last year before losing to the eventual state champion Pierz Lakers in the state tournament, are ranked third this season. Both squads have high expectations as their Tomahawk East League seasons began last weekend.

HANSKA LAKERS

Hanska, who opened up league play with a 14-7 win over Essig this past Sunday, finds itself as the top-ranked team in all of Class C in the preseason. But manager Chris Koob says the team is trying to approach the season like any other.

“It’s fun,” Koob said. “Just talking to the guys, it’s just a number. We had a good year last year, but last year was last year. This year is this year. It’s just a number, but it motivates the guys a little bit more, and we’re ready to go.”

File photo by Ari Selvey Hanska’s Derek Wilfahrt runs home during a Region 2C Amateur Baseball Tournament game against Courtland on Aug. 9, 2025 at Sleepy Eye Ballpark.

Hanska relied on a lot of youth for last year’s state tournament run, and Koob is looking for those players to return even stronger with another year of experience under their belts.

“We’ve pretty much got our whole team back,” Koob said. “We were a really young team last year. A lot of the guys were in their first or second state appearance. There’s a lot to build on there. I thought as the tournament went on, we got better. Just having that experience, we kept getting better with each game and we saw the confidence grow.

“During the early part of the year, getting some guys back from college and stuff, you can see there’s a confidence and a swagger to this team that they’re not satisfied with just being a final four team last year. They’re ready to win the whole thing.”

While the Lakers remain much the same as last year, Hanska will see two major changes to its roster. Pitcher Ethan Mixdorf is no longer with the team after moving to the Searles Grizzlies, but Koob is excited for 2025 New Ulm Cathedral graduate Colin Anderson to get some games in with the team.

“He pitched up at St. John’s this last year on the JV,” Koob said. “He didn’t get his games in last year, so we didn’t get anything from him last year. He’ll be a big add for us. Then literally every other guy is back for us from last year. We might be a little deeper with Colin. He’ll pitch some valuable innings for us and help us in the field a lot.

“We’re a lot deeper. We didn’t know a lot about ourselves last year. At this time, we had so many question marks on where we should play guys. We did a lot of experimenting early in the year trying to figure out our order — when somebody’s gone, who’s the next man in. I think we know a lot more when it comes to that. We rebooted our whole defense half way through the year last year, moved guys from infield to outfield, catcher to first base, guy off the bench to catcher. We’re just in a lot better spot this year than we were last year at this time.”

In order to achieve that goal of winning the state tournament, Hanska will be preparing with every game this season.

“We’ve just got to keep getting better,” Koob said. “We’re trying to play every game like it’s the state title game. It’s going to be a long, long season mentally, and we’ve got to get there first. We’re in a really tough region. Three of the four teams in our region won games at state last year. Courtland was No. 1 all last year. Our focus is just on getting better. Last year we probably went in to some games not ready mentally, but we’ve just got to keep being mentally ready to go and keep getting better.”

COURTLAND CUBS

After making the state tournament for the first time in 78 years in 2023, the Courtland Cubs have become somewhat of a juggernaut in the TEL, retuning to state last year as the top-ranked team in the state. While the Cubs came up short of a state title, the team is still a force to be reckoned with this year after being ranked third in preseason polls.

“We haven’t really lost anybody,” Courtland manager Chase Meyer said. “In fact, we’ve gained a couple of talents here and there. The options and opportunities are kind of endless. Just depends on whether we decide we’re going to play ball together or not. A lot of baseball is just getting hot at the right time. Hopefully we can get the stars to align and keep playing good ball and good things will happen.”

The Cubs will likely be without Mason Cox, who led all of DIII baseball in batting average (.469) in 2024, for much of the season as he plays college ball in Wisconsin.

“However, we did pick up [shortstop] Andrew Peters from the [New Ulm] Brewers,” Meyer said. “So we’ll see how that plays out. But other than that, it’s basically the same crew. A lot of our guys are another year older, some of them have another year of college experience under their belt. We’ll see how the cards fall.”

Meyer is looking for the team to play the same brand of baseball that has brought it success in previous seasons.

“It’s about getting hot at the right time, playing as a team and everything like that,” Meyer said. “Picking each other up. Last year we ran into a tough pitcher, and it kind of swept the feet from underneath us. It was what it was. It was just unfortunate, but at the same time, we lost to the team that ended up winning it all, so kudos to them. There’s always next year, so hopefully we can get hot at the right time and just become more of a team and really work together.”

In an increasingly talented TEL, Meyer is hoping the competition brings out the best in the Cubs this year and prepares them for the section and state tournaments.

“As far as the depth in the entire Tomahawk, it’s been increasing every single year,” Meyer said. “It seems like more and more players are going off and playing college baseball and getting more and more experienced and learning how to play the game and play at a high level. Playing against a lot of these good pitchers and a lot of these good hitters can only strengthen us. It might be tough at times, but at the same time you’ve got to beat the best in order to be the best. It is what it is, and I look forward to the competitive nature of it. Hopefully we can end up on top.”

ALSO RECEIVING VOTES

Two other TEL teams received votes for the top 10 in Class C. The Leavenworth Orioles won their first game of the state tournament last year and only fell 1-0 to the state runner-up Le Sueur Braves in the second round and will look to make another state tournament run. The Lamberton Long Sox, meanwhile, will look to return to the state tournament after being bounced in the first round last year.