Resilient Esko Baseball Team Set to Defend AA Title at State Tournament

First pitch between Esko and Montevideo is set for 3 PM on Thursday in St. Cloud.

ESKO, Minn.- There were points in the Section 7 AA tournament where it looked like the Esko baseball team wouldn’t be able to defend their Class AA state title.

The first instance of adversity came in the quarterfinal round where Esko would trail 7 to 1 to Proctor at one point, only to rally back and walk it off 9 to 8.

The next instance was their response to a nine to nothing shutout loss to Duluth Marshall in the semifinals, only to come back and sweep the Toppers 10 to 3 and 4 to 2 to claim their 2nd straight section title.

Esko senior catcher Bryce Hipp played a key part in those two wins. He says sometimes it takes a little bit of chaos to bring out the best of him and his teammates.

“That loss to Marshall was really that switch we needed. It was that punch in the mouth and it was kind of that realization that we’re one and done now. This is the last opportunity that we have to play baseball together and we need to make the best of it. We really responded in the right ways. It started out with pitching and then the pitching came to hitting. That’s what we needed,” said Hipp.

“We were all down on ourselves but then we realized that we can still win it all. We just started executing more. We started to believe and we stopped playing so up tight and we started playing looser, which really helped us in the end,” added senior pitcher Dylan Marciulionis.

Esko drew the number one seed in Class AA and will next face an opponent they have yet to see, Montevideo.

“You have to beat their number one and they have a bonafied number one. They were junior legion state champions in 2022 and they were runner-ups last year, so they’ve played in some state tournaments. They have over 20 wins on the season, went undefeated in their section tournament. You have to have some things go your way and your guys have to pitch well. And it’s probably going to be a low scoring affair. So, it’s going to be tough,” said head coach Ben Haugen.

First pitch between Esko and the Thunderhawks is set for 3 PM on Thursday in St. Cloud.