Wednesday, July 1, 2015 www.nujournal.com 1B 2015 All-Journal Baseball For Brandon Helget, success has come... ...with patience, consistency Mary’s coach Bruce Woitas. “He’s been our No. 3 hitter and shortstop the past three years; he’s just got a knack for the game. “He drives the ball, he can hit it the other way. He sees the ball really well and he’s a tough out.” A two-time All-State selection in Class A and the 2015 Tomahawk Conference Player of the Year, Helget has been a staple for a St. Mary’s team that has gone 57-14 overall in his time as a starter. However, his sophomore year is when things really began to come together for him. “From that point on, he’s been steady all the way through,” Woitas said. “He had a good year this year — maybe his best year average-wise — but his sophomore year, you could see already that he was going to have a good high school career.” As a sophomore, Helget hit .395 with 26 RBIs and 26 runs scored on 32 hits for a St. Mary’s team that went 20-3 overall. This was the season that shaped Helget into the player he became. By Jake Calhoun Journal Sports Writer Staff photo by Steve Muscatello SLEEPY EYE — For the past three seasons, Brandon Helget has been both the field general and heavy hitter for the Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s baseball team. In his career, 44 of Helget’s 101 career hits went for extra bases — 33 doubles, six triples and five home runs — with 92 runs scored and 80 RBIs while batting .428 and being walked 47 times at the plate for the Knights. His prowess and discipline at the plate, as well as his reliability at shortstop, have earned Helget the title of 2015 AllJournal Baseball Player of the Year, as voted on by The Journal sports staff. This season, Helget had his best season statistically, batting .444 with 34 RBIs and 36 runs scored on 32 hits with nine doubles, two triples and four home runs as well as 13 stolen bases. “He’s always been a great hitter — we saw that when he was coming up in junior high,” said St. “I started feeling comfortable at the plate, I got stronger and I started figuring out how to hit the gaps,” Helget said of his breakthrough season. Helget’s production at the plate did not wane, but his patience grew as he was walked 18 times as a junior and 19 times as a senior. This was especially helpful for a St. Mary’s team that was beginning to rely on him a lot more, which his teammates realized they could do with confidence. “I like being a patient hitter and looking for a pitch that I can hit instead of just going out there and trying to hit the ball,” Helget said. “I like to go out there and try to get a good swing on it.” Defensively, Helget has been a mainstay at shortstop as well, whereas other players are often shuffled around or put into the pitching rotation depending on where the coaches need them. That’s not to say that players Helget Continued on page 2B All-Journal First Team B. Helget St. Maryʼs Erickson Springfield Knowles Cathedral Berkner Sleepy Eye Kopacek St. Maryʼs C. Helget Cathedral Richert Springfield Surprenant St. Maryʼs Hoffmann New Ulm Stark New Ulm Forbrook New Ulm Sellner St. Maryʼs All-Journal Second Team Beranek Cathedral Beltz St. Maryʼs Skillings Cathedral Baier Springfield Hoffman MVL Flock Springfield Helget, Erickson, Knowles lead All-Journal team FIRST TEAM Brandon Helget, sr., SS, St. Mary’s Helget was named the Tomahawk Conference Player of the Year as a senior after batting .444 with 34 RBIs, 36 runs scored and 32 hits — nine doubles, two triples and four home runs. In hitting from the No. 3 spot for most of his career, the two-time All-State selection batted .428 with 80 RBIs, 92 runs scored, 101 hits. He finished with 44 extra-base hits — 33 doubles, six triples and five home runs. Carter Erickson, sr., P/SS, Springfield Erickson earned All-State honors in helping lead Springfield to a second-place finish at the Class A state tournament. On the mound, Erickson went 16-1 for his career, including 9-0 as a senior, with a total ERA of 1.37 and 89 career strikeouts. As a senior, he led all pitchers on the team in strikeouts with 56. Erickson hit .371 on the season with 18 RBIs from the leadoff spot. For his career, Erickson tallied 58 RBIs and 10 doubles at the plate. He is 10th in state history with 77 career stolen bases. Gabe Knowles, jr., P/OF, Cathedral In earning All-State honors, Knowles batted .486 with 18 RBIs and 24 runs scored with a team-high 36 hits. On the mound, Knowles was 4-0 on the season with 45 strikeouts and a 2.08 ERA. So far for his career, Knowles has batted .427 with 50 RBIs, 76 runs and 93 hits with 31 stolen bases. On the mound, Knowles has gone 10-5 with 116 strikeouts and a .207 ERA with one season to go for the Greyhounds. Matt Berkner, sr., CF, Sleepy Eye In earning All-State honors this season, Berkner batted .517 with 20 RBIs and 24 runs scored on 45 hits with six doubles, three triples and three home runs. The three-time All-Conference selection finished his career with a .387 batting average, having tallied 47 RBIs, 54 runs scored on 99 hits with 16 doubles, five triples and five home runs. His 45 hits as a senior was a school record and his 99 career hits ranks third in school history. Jon Kopacek, sr., P/3B, St. Mary’s Kopacek was the ace for St. Mary’s on the mound, tallying a 6-0 record with 44 strikeouts with a 0.90 ERA. At the plate, he batted .375 with 20 RBIs on 27 hits. For his career, Kopacek finishes with a 12-2 record with one save along with 77 strikeouts and a 1.80 ERA. He batted .383 for his career with 55 RBIs on 82 hits with two home runs. Collin Helget, sr., P/2B, Cathedral Helget batted .397 with 18 RBIs and 21 runs scored as a 2015 All-Journal Baseball The following is the 2015 All-Journal baseball team, as voted on by The Journal Sports Writers. The players are nominated by their coach and The Journal staff writers rank their top 10 players based on all of the nominees and circle an additional five. Points are as follows: 15 points for first-place vote, 14 for second, etc. First-place votes are noted in parentheses. First team 1. Brandon Helget, sr., SS, St. Maryʼs - 70 (3) 2. Carter Erickson, sr., P/SS, Springfield - 69 (2) 3. Gabe Knowles, jr., P/OF, Cathedral - 68 4. Matt Berkner, sr., OF, Sleepy Eye - 61 5. Jon Kopacek, sr., P/3B, St. Maryʼs - 50 6. Collin Helget, sr., P/2B, Cathedral - 48 7. Jevan Richert, so., C/P, Springfield - 46 8. David Surprenant, sr., OF/P/1B, St. Maryʼs - 44 9. J.T. Hoffmann, so., OF, New Ulm - 30 Second team 10. Brandon Beranek, sr., 1B, Cathedral - 23 11. Jared Beltz, jr., OF, St. Maryʼs - 21 12. Michael Skillings, jr., SS, Cathedral - 16 13. Sam Baier, jr., IF, Springfield - 12 T-14. Jacob Hoffman, jr., CF, MVL - 9 T-14. Branden Flock, so., LF, Springfield - 9 T-16. Alex Stark, sr., IF, New Ulm - 6 T-16. Connor Forbrook, sr., P/OF, New Ulm - 6 18. Alex Sellner, jr., OF/P, St. Maryʼs - 3 All-Journal Continued on page 2B Kaiserhoff gets blown out By Jim Bastian Journal Sports Writer NEW ULM — When a team has more errors (four) than hits (two) and three of its pitchers give up a combined 17 hits, it does not take a baseball genius to figure out who won. St. Peter’s Jeff Wenner held opposing bats to just two hits as his team hammered the New Ulm Kaiserhoff 15-1 seven-inning on Tuesday night in a River Valley League game. Wenner allowed singles to Jordan Schneider in the fourth inning — when the Kaiserhoff scored its only run — and a sixth-inning single to Mike Schlottman. He did not strike out a batter while walking one and hitting one. Schlottman took the loss for New Ulm (2-6). He was charged with 10 runs and 10 hits in his 3 2/3 innings of work. Randy Baker allowed four runs in his 2 1/3 innnings on the mound while Dominic Comacho was tagged with the one run. Ty Kaus, Shane Rochrkaisse and Ryan Wenner each had three hits for St. Peter (9-7). Kaus and Rochrkaisse each drove in three runs. St. Peter scored four runs in the second inning on bases-loaded walk to Seth Wenner, with two runs scoring on a fielder’s choice and ensuing error with the fourth run coming home on Kaus’ RBI single. The Saints added six runs in the fifth. Kaus singled in a run with another run scoring on an error on the play. Doubles from Sam Wenner and Rochrkaisse and a Ryan Wenner base hit upped the lead to 9-0 and ended Schlottman’s night on the mound. Randy Baker took over and tossed two wild pirches before Jeff Menk singled in the 10th run of the game. The Kaiserhoff got their run in the bottom of the innng when Travis Kretsch was hit by a pitch, took second on a Jonathon Curry groundout and scored on a Jordan Schneider base hit. Staff photo by Steve Muscatello K a i s e r h o ff outfielder Ted Skillings (22) looks on as shortstop Travis Kretsch tries to bring in a fly ball during Tuesdayʼs game against St. Peter at Johnson Park in New Ulm. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.co m Scores Contact Us Phone: 507-359-2911 Email: [email protected] AL Texas 8, Baltimore 6 Cleveland 6, Tampa Bay 2 Boston 4, Toronto 3 Houston 4, Kansas City 0 N.Y. Yankees at L.A. Angels (n) NL Chicago Cubs 1, N.Y. Mets 0 Miami 5, San Francisco 3 Washington 6, Atlanta 1 Milwaukee at Philadelphia (n) L.A. Dodgers at Arizona (n) MLB Pittsburgh at Detroit (n) Chi. White Sox at St. Louis (n) Minnesota at Cincinnati (n) Colorado at Oakland (n) Seattle at San Diego (n) WNBA Indiana 92, Connecticut 84 New York 89, Chicago 81 Tulsa at Seattle (n) San Antonio at Phoenix (n) New Ulm 16U Red sweeps Fairmont NEW ULM — The New Ulm 16U Red softball team defeated Fairmont 8-7 and 12-3 in a doubleheader on Tuesday. In Game 1, Kayla Brandes got the win in the circle. Taylor Bolduan was 2-for-4 at the plate, while Rachel Guggisberg and Kaila Brudelie were both 2-for-3. In Game 2, Bolduan was the winning pitcher. Brandes and Guggisberg were both 3for-4 at the plate and Brudelie was 2-for-4. Today’s Events WEDNESDAY, JULY 1 AMATEUR BASEBALL Tomahawk East League All-Star game at Essig, 8 p.m. VFW BASEBALL Blue Earth vs. N.U. Gold, Mueller, 5:30 p.m. N.U. Silver at St. James, 6 p.m.
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