Team goal to qualify for MCAC state competition
After returning several players from Josh Koenig’s initial year as head coach, Rainy River Community College’s baseball team has its sights set on qualifying for state in the Minnesota Community Athletic Conference.
“We are (an) older and more experienced team this year with 10 players returning from last year’s team and 11 sophomores overall,” Koenig said. “Through this experience, we will look for our team to play with constant focus, discipline and mental toughness. If we can do this, we can be competitive this season.”
The Voyageurs completed the 2010 campaign 2-14 in the MCAC and 4-26 overall. RRCC has already matched the number of overall victories from a year ago with a 4-10 record prior to the start of MCAC play in 2011.
Koenig said he is looking forward to “working with a great group of guys that are the original foundation of our program and seeing how much we can improve this season.”
In the five-team MCAC Northern Division, Koenig said he expects Itasca and Mesabi Range to be the teams to watch.
He said the Voyageurs would qualify for state in the division in 2011 with a top-three finish.
Though the yet-to-become-spring-like weather in International Falls has kept the Voyageurs practicing indoors in RRCC’s gymnasium, the team so far has been able to take to the field with a trip to Florida last month and a tournament last weekend at La Crescent.
Team captain Zaul Tapia, an infielder from, Douglas, Ariz., said being kept inside the gym practicing doesn’t provide the team with game experience fielding ground balls.
Tapia said he has become accustomed to the colder climate found in northern Minnesota.
“I don’t like the cold, but I have to live with it,” he said.
Another team captain from Arizona, outfielder/catcher/pitcher J.C. Crane, is one of the top returning players.
Crane, who batted .295 last season, has already been recognized in 2011 with a Northern Division “co-player-of-the-week” honor for a period in which he hit .409 with two doubles and 8 RBI.
A .348 hitter from a year ago, Marc Simard of St. Lazare, Manitoba, returns at pitcher/first base.
The Northern Division’s leading stealer with 17 swiped bags in 2010, Alan Strom of Kensington, is back to play in the infield. Strom also batted .299 last season.
A returning catcher, Evan Marsh of Dauphin, Manitoba, batted .268 last season.
The list of top incoming players includes Michael Dickerson Jr., an outfielder/infielder from Chicago who has transferred from Frank Phillips Community College. Dickerson shared the recent “co-player-of-week” honor with Crane after batting .375 from the leadoff position.
Half of RRCC’s pitching victories so far in 2011 have been credited to Tony Zelazny of Anchorage, Alaska. After coming into his first college outing in relief to pitch out of a based-loaded jam, he won his first start and received the Northern Division’s first “pitcher-of-the-week” honor this season.
Other top incoming players include infielder Mike Menard, who attended Falls High School, pitcher Colin Barton, a Fort Frances High School graduate, and first baseman/pitcher Chris Verdugo of Tucson, Ariz.
Judging by what he’s seen so far this season, Koenig said he believes the team’s success will be dependent upon the quality of its pitching.
“The health and consistency of our pitching staff will be a focal point this season,” he said. “We also need to maintain our focus on our hitting and getting on base and remaining healthy or those may be our weaknesses.”
Team captain and right-handed pitcher Eric Erickson of Barrett is currently out of action as he recovers from shoulder surgery.
