Northern Star: Finn Furcht
Esko ace aiming for return to state tournament
ESKO, Minn.- As the Esko baseball team defends its 2023 section and state titles, Finn Furcht will no doubt do his part on the mound.
“I’ve been pitching probably since about third grade. I got into it, then I just loved it ever since,” smiled Furcht. “The fastball is my go-to pitch, but I overlay it with the curveball a lot.”
Furcht has become one of the feared aces in Minnesota, but even the most elite pitchers have to find their footing.
“He pitched for us a little bit as a freshman and struggled,” admits Ben Haugen, Esko’s head coach. “(Finn) was better as a sophomore. And last year, you saw glimpses of his dominance, and so far this year, he’s taking the next step.”
Haugen has witnessed Finn’s willpower through self-accountability and doing the little things to put himself above the rest. “He’s probably the one guy we’ve had in our program over the last couple of decades that just kind of holistically takes it seriously. I mean, nutrition, mobility, weights, strength training, the whole ball of wax. He wants to be good.”
“(Finn) just brings a good dominant presence on the mound,” says Dylan Marciolonis, a fellow Esko senior. “When he’s gonna go up there, he’s gonna do his best. The team expects that and we’re all ready for him, and we have his back.”
Marciolonis is another potent pitcher in Esko’s rotation, and he and Finn have only made each other better against opposing batters.
“I like to have a little rivalry with them,” says Marciolonis, “We just feed off of that (competition and) we try to make each other better. And that makes the team better.”
“We have a kind of like friendly competition to see who does the best in live (at-bats) or who has the most gross pitches,” says Furcht. “But he used to be my catcher in little league, so he kind of knows me like a book and it’s just fun to see how we grow and be better together.”
While Furcht prides himself on getting better as an individual player, it’s his team that motivates him the most on the mound.
“We just love to play baseball. (I’ll remember) just the fun we have and just the guys that are here and just being part of the greatest friend group and just loving the game with them.”
Esko will face off against Proctor in the Section 7AA Quarterfinals on Thursday at 11 a.m.
