Wednesday, July 1, 2015
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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
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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.