Green Isle Ends Saints Best Run At State Since 1980

Posted September 7, 2017


Green Isle Ends Saints Best Run At State Since 1980

By Pat Beck, St. Peter Herald

St. Peter’s longest run in the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament since 1980 ended before the Saints would have liked, but the team enjoyed the journey.

Green Isle ended St. Peter’s season in the third round (top 16) of the state Class C tournament Saturday 10-3 at Zellman Field in Norwood.

Despite the loss, St. Peter finished 20-12-1, while Green Isle upped to 26-8 and into the quarterfinals against Kimball at 11 a.m. Sunday at Hamburg.

“It was fun this year,” St. Peter catcher Billy Hanson said. “How many guys get to play baseball in September? That’s our goal every year, make it to Labor Day weekend and once we get there, it’s one game at a time. They were a competitive team today. They just beat us on the scoreboard.”

St. Peter manager Tom “Bully” Lacina agreed that “it was a fun year. Everybody was a teammate. We had a lot of guys missing during the season because of family stuff. Guys filled in and played well, and that made the older guys feel like they could miss a game without the team falling apart. We had a good mix of guys, and we’re good at picking people’s spirits up. I’ll take this group of guys any day. We were trying to win a state tournament game with a 17-year-old kid.”

For example, Lacina said when veteran Ryan Kapser came back and replaced first-year outfielder Alex Hoehn, who played the first two games, Hoehn accepted it and was ready to pinch run or whatever the Saints needed.

The Irish took a 2-0 lead in the second inning on an error, a hit by pitch and a two-RBI double.

St. Peter answered with two runs in the third. Ty Kaus, who went 2 for 4, singled to center, Jovan Rodriguez reached on an error, Shea Roehrkasse singled to left center to score Kaus, and an error on the center fielder scored Rodriguez.

Green Isle scored two runs in the bottom of the third on a double, hit by pitch, two errors and a sacrifice fly to take a 4-2 lead.

St. Peter cut it to 4-3 with a run in the fourth. Hanson led off with a walk. Jordan Wilmes and Kaus singled to load the bases, and Steve Nessler hit a sacrifice fly to score Hanson.

The Irish upped their lead to 5-3 with a run in the fifth on a single, double and sacrifice fly.

Green Isle made it 6-3 with a home run by Alex Twenge in the seventh.

The Irish scored four more runs in the eighth on three hits, two walks and an error.

St. Peter’s pitching staff was led by the oldest player, Jesse Anderson, 39, and the youngest player, Andy Regner, 17.

“He (Anderson) stepped up big time this year when we lost three pitchers to arm injuries,” Hanson said. “He doesn’t throw anything special. He just throws strikes and gets us innings. He throws fastball, curve ball and the occasional change-up. He’s 80 to 90 percent fastball. We mix in the curve ball when we need to, but Homey’s a fastball pitcher.”

“Andy came through huge for us, too,” Hanson said. “If we didn’t have him, we would have been hurting coming into regions and the state tournament. He stepped up big for us. It will be nice to have him for his second year. He’s young, but he’s got a long ways to go and a lot of potential to get there.”

Regner also throws a fastball, curveball and a changeup. “He has a different arm angle, he has a real nice curve ball, and he threw a lot of change-ups today,” Hanson said. “He’s a three-pitch pitcher.”

Anderson started all of the state games including the last one in which he pitched five innings, allowing five runs (one earned) on seven hits.

Regner pitch the next 2 2/3 innings, allowing five runs (three earned) on three hits. Fairfax draftee Scott Palmer pitched the last 2/3 of an inning, allowing no runs on one hit.

Hanson said the St. Peter pitchers “were a little off today, but our defense let us down. The field was in tough shape. The field gave us bad hops. Usually our defense is our best attribute, and today it just wasn’t there. The errors hurt us, but they had plenty of errors, too. They just got the clutch hit. We didn’t get the clutch hit. That pretty much determined the game.”

Green Isle has been a perennial state qualifier in the 94-year tournament (22 times including champion in 2003, second in 1996 and 2015 and third in 1994 and 2013).

St. Peter has made state 15 times including champion in 1933 and 1955 and third in 1932. This is the fourth straight season at state for the Saints, and the first time they got past the first round since 1980.

“They’re a more veteran team,” Lacina said comparing the Irish to the Saints.

All of the St. Peter players plan to be back next season and a couple of high school graduates may join the team.

“Hopefully this gives everybody the desire to play next year and see if we can’t make it farther,” Lacina said. “It’s a good learning experience. I don’t think there’s anybody other than me on this team that’s gone this far in the state tournament before.

“We were a little nervous. We’ve never been this far. We have some youngsters. I wasn’t happy with the result, but we played well, we played hard. It gives us some momentum for next year.”




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