The Esko American Legion team has had a good summer with a veteran group of players.
"When we get all our guys there, we're a pretty good team in our division," coach Jeff Emanuel said. "We've got four or five guys hitting the ball well this summer and we're even getting a chance to play our younger players too."
Esko has also picked up 6-foot-5 left-handed pitcher Ryan Reed for the summer and that has been a big help.
"His grandfather lives here and it's OK for him to play with us," Emanuel said. "We call him R2/D2 on our team, first for his initials (RR) and then because he's playing Division 2 baseball next year (D2). We're sort of big on nicknames like that."
Jamie Stokes is second on the team with a gaudy .533 batting average this summer, trailing only Steve Lewis, whose .583 average is making Esko forget all about Joe Mauer.
ADVERTISEMENT
School star Matt Tengesdal is at the .500 mark to give Esko a very potent middle of the lineup.
"He's not always there because he's busy in summer with his church and his family, but he sure tries to be," Emanuel said. "He loves to play."
He's also a hard worker.
"Mechanically, batting, he works very hard," Emanuel said. "He keeps his emotions under control when he plays; he's just up there to hit. Matt is a perfect example of a baseball player at this level."
When all of the team's 10 seniors are not available to play, or the team is playing a non-divisional game, Emanuel gives the younger players a chance to earn some experience.
"We've had a chance to play some of the freshmen coming up next year," he said. "That's one thing we don't always see because we were senior-heavy in school ball. We get the young kids playing as often as we can."
Cody Townsend - the 13th and last of the famous Townsend athletes of Esko - is hitting leadoff this summer prior to his senior year.
"He isn't hitting for average much but he makes pitchers work and he draws walks," Emanuel said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Esko is 11-8 overall even though Tuesday's scheduled game against Carlton was rained out. They are also 10-5 in their division which counts for seeding purposes.
"Hermantown played us out of division and beat us 21-9 but we were putting players in all sorts of different positions to get them experience," Emanuel added. "We wanted to get people into games and we use non-division games to do that."
One of those players is freshman catcher Max Reinertsen.
"He started to play when we had injuries at catcher and he has been just great," Emanuel said. "He had never caught before but he wants to learn and he has a lot of promise. I think he's going to be a great athlete for Esko."
