Falling Short of State Tournament, Esko Baseball More Determined as Practices Begin

The Eskomos will head down to Orlando, Florida this weekend to compete in some scrimmages, as well as get a chance to practice outdoors.

ESKO, Minn.- The Esko baseball team is already two weeks into their spring season.

After finishing with a 20-5 record last year, the Eskomos are more determined to make their way to the big game.

The team knows that reaching that goal though, starts day one of practice.

“This is a very good section this year but we were a young team last year and a lot of guys spent a lot of time in the weight room and the batting cages and I’m confident we can get it done this year,” said senior 1st baseman Alex Kazel.

“We’re all really stoked we’re all kind of ready for the same thing, we want to go to state, we want to get over that slump that we’ve had of kind of choking in the playoffs. I’m looking forward to being with the guys all the time, we all really want to go to state and that’s our main goal,” added senior outfielder Owen Wilson.

This season Esko returns their entire starting lineup, giving the team the experience needed come section playoffs. Head Coach Ben Haugen says the emphasis early on is improving the mental side of the game in order to perform in those big moments.

“We returned everyone this year, so the expectations are really high but we have a really tough section, double a as a whole in the state of Minnesota is tough, so I think the mental side of the game and be ready for the big game and not let things get too big for us is the key. But we’re going to challenge them in practice, we’re going to try and make things difficult for them, put them in tough spots, try to make them fail see how they respond and hopefully that pays dividends in the end,” said Haugen.

The Eskomos will head down to Orlando, Florida this weekend to compete in some scrimmages, as well as get a chance to practice outdoors.