Tag Archives: Northwoods League

Alexandria’s Dalton Leuschke excited to be back home with chance to prove himself in the NWL

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The Alexandria Blue Anchors unveiled their home and away jerseys at Fat Daddy’s on Wednesday night and also let the fans know there would be a familiar face in those jerseys this summer.

Future Blue Anchors players Tyler Beck (white jersey) and Ryan Mestnik modeled the team’s new jerseys at Fat Daddy’s on Wednesday night. (Echo Press photo by Eric Morken)

Alexandria’s Dalton Leuschke has signed a full contract to play for the local Northwoods League team all summer after getting a taste of the NWL with the Beetles in 2012 on a short contract. He was at the jersey unveiling on Wednesday as his future Blue Anchors teammates, Ryan Mestnik and Tyler Beck of Augsburg College, modeled the new attire before answering a few questions from general manager Joe Dempsey. Leuschke just wrapped up his second season at Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) where he hit .298 with 20 runs scored and 16 RBIs.

The Bears were ranked No. 1 in the Division II National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) polls at one point this season and finished with a record of 44-11. Their season came up short of where they wanted to get after losing 9-2 to Iowa Central Community College in a NJCAA Region XI elimination game recently.

“We ended on a sour note,” Leuschke told me when I caught up with him after the jersey unveiling. “Things just didn’t go our way. We had a good team, it just didn’t end the way we wanted it to. For me personally, I didn’t hit as good as I wanted to. I still ended up hitting all right, but defensively I felt comfortable.”

The former Alexandria Cardinals shortstop played a lot of right field and also caught a few games for the Bears. He hit .304 with 30 RBI and 32 runs scored his freshman season at DMACC in 2012. That earned him a shot with the Beetles in the NWL early last summer where he hit .182 in just 22 at-bats. The short contract left him with about two months where he played some with the Miltona Tigers in the Resorters Amateur Baseball League. It wasn’t the day-to-day action that he was hoping for to keep his game sharp before heading back to DMACC.

Dalton Leuschke waited for a pitch as a member of the Alexandria Beetles early last summer. (Echo Press file photo by Eric Morken)

“I kind of had two months off before I started playing again and that kind of hurt me,” he said. “But I think being on a full contract will be awesome this year. It will help me get ready for next fall and keep everything intact, my swing and then just staying healthy for next fall and hopefully keep things going.”

Leuschke is excited for the opportunity to work with Blue Anchors manager Al Newman again. Newman was Leuschke’s coach on a traveling all-star team through the Minnesota Baseball Academy, owned by new Blue Anchors’ co-owner Adam Barta.

Leuschke will have the comfort of knowing he has the opportunity to prove that he can play at the NWL level over the course of an entire summer. The new ownership group has made it clear that they want to have a lot of Minnesota players on this team in the coming years, and having a local product fits exactly what they are looking for. That’s exciting for Leuschke, who says he’s eager to try to prove that you can build a winning team in the NWL with Minnesota players.

“Obviously, being from Minnesota, people don’t really see you as a baseball player because it’s not a really warm state,” he said. “But I feel like there are a certain amount of kids who work hard to show people that they can do it, and I think they use it to their advantage. They like to prove people wrong. For me, being from Alexandria and playing in front of everyone, it’s a chance for me to show them that I can play at this level and prove to them that Minnesota kids do work hard and like to play and can play at the highest levels just like the kids from down south that get to play all year around.”

Leuschke hopes a good summer will lead to some big opportunities in the fall. He said he has some Division II offers for baseball and is also getting strong interest from a few Division I teams. One of those is the University of North Dakota, where he says he hopes to play next fall.

“I’m pretty sure it’s everyone’s goal as an athlete to get to the highest level,” he said. “Division I has always been a dream of mine to play. All the perks that come with it – the flying, the traveling, getting to compete at the highest level you can compete at.”

Reilly still working on securing local buyer for Beetles

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Alexandria’s Shawn Reilly is still in the process of trying to secure a local owner for the Alexandria Beetles but felt pretty good about those prospects with a deadline looming.

Reilly said this morning that he has until the end of November to sell the team before the Northwoods League would take over the franchise. He has also been assured by league president Dick Radatz Jr. that that is not what the league wants to do.

“I’ve had some very nice, candid conversations with him,” Reilly said. “He doesn’t want to take this over. He doesn’t want to run it, I should say…I’ve had a good working relationship with him. I’ve been pleased about that. He’s making it very clear, ‘Try to take care of this locally.’ That’s good to hear.”

Reilly said there are two different scenarios for selling the team that are still realistic options. He said he has two individuals who are interested in buying the whole team.

Another option is putting together a group of five who would each purchase 20 percent of the team. Reilly would remain a part of that ownership group. He said he has two others who have agreed to be a part of that as well, meaning he would have to find an additional two to make that happen.

“I’m still feeling good about the two individuals,” Reilly said. “All along, I’ve kind of felt like I won’t believe it till I see it, but I’ve talked to a lot of people. Talked to a lot of people about selling. I feel really good. There’s a local connection for both of them.”

Beetles need better pitching to have a chance in the second half

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The Alexandria Beetles know their pitching will have to get a lot better over the season’s final few weeks if they want to have any chance of making a second-half run like they did last season.

The Beetles finished the first half yesterday with the second worst record in the North Division at 13-22, and it’s not hard to understand why. They enter the second half against St. Cloud tonight with a team ERA of 6.54. In comparison, the first-place Mankato MoonDogs have a team ERA of 3.39 on their way to winning the first half with a 28-7 record.

“With our offense, if we can keep it around 4.0, 4.50 [ERA], I think we would be just fine,” head coach Drew Saberhagen said. “I think yesterday (an 8-7 win over Willmar) was hopefully a big step in the right direction. Our bullpen allowed only one run in six innings. That kept us in the game. Hopefully some other guys can build off that.”

The Alexandria pitching staff is last in the Northwoods League in runs allowed after giving up 278 through the first 35 games. Included in that are 57 unearned runs allowed with a defense that has 62 errors.

The biggest problem for this team through the first half was finding the strike zone. Alexandria has allowed a league high 223 walks already. That’s 13 more than the Beetles allowed all of last summer. Rochester has the second most walks through the first half with 189 and no other team has more than 171.

“As a pitching coach, you definitely take pride in that and to lead the league with the most walks allowed is frustrating,” Saberhagen said. “Especially in a park like ours where you’re going to give up a few cheap home runs just because of the dimensions. By giving them free base runners, it puts that much more pressure on your staff.”

The Beetles are still trying to find out where guys fit best. Ali Simpson (Bethune-Cookman, 1-0, 3.94 ERA), Steve Weber (Eastern Michigan, 1-3, 3.60 ERA) and Jon Reed (Walters State, 2-1, 3.72 ERA) are the only three guys who have solidified themselves in the rotation. Shawn Reisgraf (St. Cloud State), Scott Sanderson (St. Cloud State) and Michael Reed (LSU) will also continue to get looks as starters as they try to work through a tough first half of the season after all three posted ERA’s above 8.30.

Brandon Johnson is one of a couple additions Alexandria will be getting into town that it hopes can help with this team’s pitching problems. The left-hander was scheduled to arrive this afternoon after making a deep run into the College World Series with Florida State. Saberhagen said he would like to use Johnson as a starter but will start by using him to solidify the bullpen after he allowed just two walks and posted an ERA of 2.87 through 15 2/3 innings this past season.

Johnson’s catcher with the Seminoles will also be joining him in Alexandria after starting all 67 games for one of the top programs in the country. McGee hit .230 for Florida State but it’s his ability to call a game that could benefit the Beetles the most.

“He will be a huge asset when we get him on the ninth, probably his first game on the 10 [of July],” Saberhagen said. “Anytime you can catch every single game for Florida State, a team that was No. 1 in the country for much of the season, that says something about you defensively. I think he might be able to take control of this pitching staff and get them to figure some things out just by working with him. He’s a big guy who really receives the ball well.”

Alexandria doesn’t need much from McGee offensively. The Beetles are already fourth in the league in runs scored with 212. That’s why they feel like they still have a chance to make some noise if they can get things figured out with their pitchers.

“I kind of talked a little bit about it before the Willmar series,” Saberhagen said. “I just kind of said, ‘Let’s start fresh, win the series going into the second half.’ We did that at home. The guys are excited. I think we’re starting to come together a little more on the field, and if we throw strikes, I like our chances.”

Beetles hope to build off historic season

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The Alexandria Beetles are coming off their best season in franchise history and hope to build off that as they open up the 2012 summer at home against Thunder Bay tonight with a 7:05 first pitch.

A total of 21 Beetles players were at the team’s first official practice on Tuesday night. Seventeen more guys are still playing in the postseason for their respective colleges and two are waiting to hear where they might end up going in the MLB draft next week. That is a testament to the kind of talent long-time assistant and first-year head coach Drew Saberhagen believes this team has assembled this summer.

Photo by Eric Morken/Echo Press: Beetles' head coach Drew Saberhagen hit fielding practice for his team during Alexandria's first practice on Tuesday night.

“That just says something, hopefully to the talent we’re bringing in,” Saberhagen said. “We’re bringing in guys who are playing pretty big roles on World Series teams and regional teams.”

At the top of that talent are eight or nine returning guys who Saberhagen expects to make big contributions again this summer. Michael Reed is one of those returning players. The righthander from LSU will get the start in the season opener against the Border Cats tonight.

Reed started 11 games for the Beetles in 2011 and went 5-2 with a 4.08 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 64 innings pitched. His goal this year is the same as last year – build on a team-first approach that made for a memorable second half of the season in 2011.

“It was fun last year because it was just such a good group of guys,” Reed said. “All the guys were in it for the same goal. You could tell that the common drive, it wasn’t reach your own successful goals, it was reach the team goals. That was going as far as we could, and that’s what was fun about it. Everybody was in it for the same thing. Other guys were putting in just as much effort as you were, and you wanted to do good for those guys, not so much yourself.”

Saberhagen said he feels the same kind of vibe with the group he’s assembled this summer. The 44 wins this team had and its record-setting 28-11 record in the second half is still fresh on the minds of many of the guys who were a part of it. Having the guys back who remember what that run felt like can only help heading into a new season.

“Anytime you can have a guy who’s gone through the grind of the Northwoods League, it really helps the other guys,” Saberhagen said. “Just seeing their faces for the first time today, they’re ready to go. I know it’s only the first practice, but this reminds me of the team last year that really wanted to get after it and really cared about winning. I’m looking forward to it.”

Waiting to hear from the draft

Two guys who weren’t with the team yet and maybe won’t be all summer were Eastern Kentucky’s Anthony Bazzani and Eastern Michigan’s Steve Weber as both players wait to see if and where they are taken in next week’s MLB draft.

This comes as no surprise to fans who watched Bazzani tear through the Northwoods League last summer with the Beetles. The right-handed closer was one of the more dominant relievers in the league, finishing with a 1.45 ERA through the regular season with 70 strikeouts in just 49 2/3 innings.

Bazzani thrived in his role coming out of the bullpen after struggling as a starter early in his sophomore season at Eastern Kentucky. He consistently touched 95 MPH on his fastball in Alexandria last summer. That success translated to a much more successful junior season at EKU this past spring as he finished with a 3.40 ERA in 42 1/3 innings.

“Obviously I want him up here,” Saberhagen said. “But I hope we don’t see him because he’s the kind of kid you really root for. He had such a major impact on the team last year. I know the returning guys are like, ‘Man, Bazzani’s got to come back.’ He’s a guy who had such a big influence on the guys that were here.”

The MLB draft starts next Monday, June 4, and wraps up on Wednesday.

Beetes in the Majors, NAHL sets attendance records

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Three former Alexandria Beetles players broke spring training with their Major League clubs to start the regular season in Lucas Duda, Danny Worth and Nick Hundley.

Duda made the biggest impression in the first week as the starting right fielder for the New York Mets. The 2006 Beetle hit two home runs in the second of a three-game series against Atlanta to open the season. He has struggled since then, hitting .189 with three home runs and five RBI through the first 10 games this spring. Duda hit .304 with three home runs and 34 RBI during his summer in Alexandria.

Worth opened the season with the Detroit Tigers but was recently optioned to Triple-A Toledo after collecting a hit in just five at-bats. The move was made to make room for Brandon Inge on a loaded Tigers team that come into the season as the clear front-runner to win the Central Division. Worth hit .307 with three home runs and 31 RBI during the 2006 Beetles’ season.

Hundley has also gotten off to a slow start in nine games played for the San Diego Padres. He went hitless in his first 21 at-bats before going 1-for-2 with two walks in a loss to the Dodgers on Sunday. He broke out of that slump with a double and three RBI on a 3-for-5 day from the plate against the Rockies on Monday. Hundley played for the Beetles in 2004, hitting .293 with four home runs and 27 RBI.

Former Beetle Allen Craig opened up the season on the disabled list because of a knee injury. Last year’s World Series hero figures to play a prominent role in the Cardinals outfield once he comes back, which is expected to be soon after he started rehabbing in St. Louis in early April.

*NAHL sets attendance records

The North American Hockey League (NAHL) announced its attendance numbers recently, which showed that the league has reached new highs in both total and average attendance this winter.

The NAHL drew a record 1,128,098 fans through 840 regular-season games this season. The 28-city league averaged 1,342 fans per game, helped out in large part by the Fresno franchise, which welcomed 106,718 fans in 30 home games.

The Blizzard had the 16th highest attendance in the league with an average of 866 per night. Alexandria welcomed in 25,995 fans total in a season that saw the organization finish with a record 40 regular-season wins.

Bazzani picking up where he left off at Eastern Kentucky

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No player made more of a name for himself in a Beetles uniform last summer than Eastern Kentucky pitcher Anthony Bazzani.

The hard-throwing right hander put his name on the MLB draft radar with a 1.45 ERA and  70 strikeouts in just 49 2/3 innings during the regular season. Then Beetles field manager Matt Hancock thought a big junior season at Eastern Kentucky could catapult him up draft boards this summer.

So far, so good on that front. Bazzani has picked up right where he left off in his first seven appearances with the Colonels this spring. In eight innings, Bazzani has allowed just one earned run and fanned eight. The Beetles expect him back in Alexandria this summer as of right now.

The June draft could change those plans if he gets drafted and works out a deal to start his professional career instead of returning for his senior year at EKU. Baseball America named him the 80th best college prospect in the country this past winter.

His Colonels teammate and another former Beetles pitcher, Matt Fyffe, has also gotten off to a fast start. Fyffe was hoping to get drafted last year but teams wanted to see more from him after coming off Tommy John surgery the year before.

Fyffe could do a lot for his draft stock with a solid senior season at EKU. He couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start to the spring. He is 3-0 with a 1.06 ERA in six appearances. He has struck out 14 and allowed just four runs, two earned, in 17 innings pitched.