Esko Community Sends Off Eskomo Baseball to First State Tournament Since 2000

Monday afternoon, the community gathered at the Esko Sports Complex to give the team well wishes before they departed for St. Cloud.

ESKO, Minn.- It’s been a long wait for the Esko baseball team since they last made it to the state tournament.

23 years to be exact. But that wait comes to an end Tuesday when they open up tournament play.

Monday afternoon, the community gathered at the Esko Sports Complex to give the team well wishes before they departed for St. Cloud.

They even received an escort from the fire department as they made their way to I-35.

Senior outfielder Owen Wilson says he’s really excited for the next few days,but he also thanked the team’s in year’s past that helped them get to this point.

“All the boys are super excited. We finally broke the curse and went through the section tournament. We’re ready to go. We know we’re the best and we’re going to win the championship. It’s a great feeling. We’ve had a lot of great teams in the past who were just a little short in making it so it’s a big deal to finally get through,” said Wilson.

Excitement aside, they know that the first order of business is to try and take down St. Agnes in the quarterfinals.

“I think we’re going to see a thumber lefty. We’re a team that likes to swing the bat. We’re looking to drive the ball and I think he’s going to try and keep us off balance and work away. We know we definitely need to have an approach. We’re playing in a big ballpark so we just have to go do what we do. Not really focus on our opponent and just ride the coat tails of what has gotten us here,” added head coach Ben Haugen.

The Eskomos will take the diamond at Dick Putz Field in St. Cloud at 3 PM on Tuesday.