Sleepy Eye will face team on rampage

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- When the Sleepy Eye Indians (22-3) face Bertha-Hewitt (17-7) at 10 a.m. today in Jordan in the opening round of the Class 2A baseball tournament, they will be facing a young team that has done a lot of damage in the post-season.

"They start a number of sophomores in their line-up," said Indians coach Bruce Belseth. "The pitcher that we will probably see is a sophomore left-hander that pitched a 5-4 win over Hillcrest Lutheran Academy (in the Section 6-1A title game)."

The favorites in Section 6-1A were Verndale and Menagha. "But Bertha-Hewitt knocked both those teams out of the (sectional) tournament. They beat some good teams to get to state," commented Belseth.

The Bears "tend to bunt the ball in the lower part of the order. That may tell you that the lower part of their (batting) order might be a little weaker. But their one through seven hitters are pretty good," said Belseth.

Belseth said the Indians "feel that we have to get off to a good start. That is important. We like to get a lead and put pressure on the other team. I also think that that takes a little bit of pressure off our pitcher. With the senior leadership that we have, we expect to do that."

And putting pressure on not only the pitcher but the Bears' catcher will come from the overall team speed and intelligence on the basepaths, Belseth said that "this team is a good group. They make good, intelligent decisions (on the bases). If you want to look at statistics, last year we had more stolen bases than we do this year. But our hitting average is higher this year so we have had to steal less bases."

Belseth that if he was scouting his team, as an opposing coach, he would be concerned with "all the tangibles of baseball. I feel that we have very good pitching, I think that our base running is strong and we tend to play solid defense.

"We have also had some clutch hitting all this year but different people. I feel that we are tough to stop because we play all facets of the game well."

One thing that Sleepy Eye has going for it, unlike the majority of teams, is that baseball tradition in this area.

"We talked about that a little bit," he said. "This is the fifth Sleepy Eye High School team to go to the state tournament. We have always said that the toughest thing for our program is to get out of our area. We feel that our sub-section, which used to be called our district, prepares us immensely for post-season play. If we can get out of our subsection, we have done well."

Belseth said that no one in particular has stood out for the Indians this year. "If you look at each post-season game, we have always had some one different come through. It might be on offense or defense. We are balanced."

Belseth said the he will probably send this lineup into this morning's game. Belseth said his pitching choice is undecided between Jim Eckstein and Cole Deibele.

Leading off will be Loren Havemeier, second base; Cody Walter, center field; Jim Eckstein, pitcher; Bryan Weiss, first base; Mike Nachreiner, catcher; Cole Deibele, pitcher, Ross Lendt, shortstop; Steve Geschwind, left field; Bryce Belseth, right field. Both Walter and Belseth are sophomores.

"Whatever it takes to try and win the first game, we will try and do," said Belseth. "Whatever happens after that, we will deal with it when it comes."