FAIRMONT — The No. 2-seeded Fairmont Cardinals play the unseeded Belle Plaine Tigers in a 10 a.m. Class AA state quarterfinal baseball game on Tuesday at Dick Putz Field in St. Cloud.
“These kids are a fun group to coach,” Fairmont head coach Don Waletich said. “Belle Plaine has been to the state tournament before (1994) and is a well-coached team. They have good pitchers and good defense, so it will be a challenge to score runs.
“We have players with state tournament experience from last year, which is a benefit in these games. They won’t be nervous. I think it helps playing early since the game is fresh in their minds and the kids don’t have to sit around all day thinking about the game. It should also be a little cooler at that time of day and won’t be as hot. We played at this time last year.”
Fairmont is making its 12th trip to the state tournament. The other season the Cardinals made it: 1963, ’64, ’68, ’71, ’75, ’93, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2022 when they beat Roseau 7-0 in the state championship game.
This is Waletich’s second time making the state tournament as a head coach.
The other three Class AA quarterfinal games Tuesday are unseeded Perham (20-4) vs. No. 3 seed Foley (23-5) at 12:30 p.m.; unseeded St. Agnes (23-4) vs. No. 1-seed Esko (23-1) at 3 p.m.; and No. 5 seed Cannon Falls (21-5) vs. No. 4-seed Holy Family Catholic (18-5) at 5:30 p.m. The quarterfinals are all played at Dick Putz Field.
“All of the teams that made it to the state tournament are good,” Waletich said. “You need some breaks along the way to win it all. We don’t think about winning back-to-back state titles. We take it one practice at a time and one game at a time.”
The semifinal games are 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Dick Putz Field, and the state championship game is scheduled at 1 p.m. Friday at CHS Field in St. Paul, home of the St. Paul Saints and Hamline University’s baseball team.
The Cardinals bring a 22-2 record to the state tournament and will be going for a second straight state title.
Belle Plaine is 18-6 and finished second to Norwood Young America in the Minnesota River Conference.
Belle Plaine’s top hitter is Jake Brandenburg at .367, followed by Ted Hohn at .333. The Tigers’ top two pitchers are Ted Hohn and Hunter Hoen, who have a 0.33 and 0.34 ERA in 42 2/3 innings pitched and 62 1/3 innings pitched, respectively. Hoen is 6-2 with one save on the season, while Ted Hohn is 7-0.
Offensively, the Cardinals put a lot of runs on the board as their lineup is potent from top to bottom.
Among the starting nine, the top four in the lineup lead the way. Leadoff hitter Landen Meyerdirk has a .381 batting average (32-for-84) with nine doubles and two triples. He’s scored 32 runs in the Cardinals’ 24 games.
No. 2 batter Lincoln Becker’s batting average is .391 (36-for-92), which leads the team among starters. He has scored 24 runs, hit four doubles and two triples. Becker also leads the team with 32 RBIs.
No. 3 batter Nate Soelter carries a .375 batting average (30-for-80) with five doubles, five triples and two home runs. He’s scored 25 runs and driven in 17.
Clean-up hitter Jack Kosbab has a .295 batting average (23-for-78), collecting four doubles. He has driven in 21 runs and scored 19.
Those four hitters are followed by Cooper Steuber (.250 batting average), Brendan Schmidtke (.213 batting average), Levi Pooley (.243 batting average), Josh Soelter (.317 battting average) and Joseph Hackett (.237 batting average).
The Cardinals have scored 204 runs — 8.5 runs per game, and has a .298 team batting average. Their potent lineup puts a lot of pressure on opposing pitchers. They have scored in double figures in eight of their 24 games with a high of 21 against Blue Earth Area on April 13.
In the six sectional games, the Cardinals have outscored their opponents 35-13.
The Cardinals use their very good team speed as they have hit an amazing 34 doubles and 12 triples, compared to only three home runs. The Cardinals have 56 stolen bases on the season.
In sectional elimination play, Fairmont trailed Paynesville Area 3-1, but scored five runs in the fifth inning in a 6-3 win. Against Luverne in the finals, Fairmont scored a combined seven runs from the fifth inning and later to beat Luverne twice, 6-4 in 10 innings and 3-2 in eight innings.
Defensively, the Cardinals have committed only 28 errors and during the section championship games against Luverne did not make an error.
Hackett is a wall behind the plate, throwing out seven of 11 runners attempting to steal a base, which is 64 percent.
On the mound, players who have a decision on the playoff roster are Jensen Livesay (1-0), Becker (2-0), Meyerdirk (2-0 with one save), Nate Soelter (6-1), Schmidtke (5-0 with one save) and Ben Moeller (6-0). The team ERA is 1.46. They have struck out 130 batters in 158 2/3 innings this season.