Area DRS teams ready for another summer of amateur baseball

Once again this summer, The New Prague Times will provide information as available on area amateur baseball teams competing in the Dakota-Rice-Scott League. DRS teams have competed locally and at the state levels for several decades. The league includes teams in New Prague, Union Hill, St. Benedict, Elko, New Market, Lonsdale, Webster, Veseli, Montgomery, St. Patrick, Shakopee, Prior Lake and Faribault. The information below was submitted by teams in response to questions previewing the DRS.

New Prague Orioles Record last year: 16-11, 14-4 in DRS, tied for first. Where your season concluded: Third round of region playoffs. Manager: Nick Schoenecker, assistants Frank Ruzicka and Seth Dorner. Strength of team / key players: A solid core of seasoned town ball veterans will lead the Orioles’ offense, including James Fuerniss, Eric Wagner, Dan Ring, Jake Deutsch and Gavin Bergman. All five hitters batted well over .300 last season. Tommy McBroom had a nice season locking down centerfield while batting .288. On the pitching side, Bergman proved to be a dominant force, winning six of his nine starts while averaging an impressive 11 strikeouts and just two walks per game. Challenges to address: Matt Zweber was one of our best pitchers last year and will be on the injured reserve this season but NP will be looking forward to having him back in 2026. The Orioles will need some of their young pitchers, like Simon Kajer, Kole Wagner, Derek Aasen, Austin Wilson and Beau Plaisance to step up. Keys to success in the DRS and advancing deep into the playoffs: Building on last season’s achievements, New Prague is counting on the continued development of several key players. Aidan Dorzinski, Jacob Mader, Anthony Mader, Ben Schmitz, Evan Anderson and Beau Plaisance, all of whom gained significant playing time last year, will be crucial to NP’s offensive growth. Ben Buthe has been bitten by the injury bug the past couple of years and can really add to our success if he stays healthy. Additionally, the Orioles look for Jackson Sirek and Brody Isley to contribute significantly this season on the mound. Cameron Prochaska is back after a one-year absence and will help in both hitting and pitching. Anything else you’d like to offer: The DRS is one of the best leagues top to bottom in the state. We hope to compete and have fun this summer, Schoenecker said.

St. Patrick Irish Record Last Year: Overall, 10-12; 6-8 in Section 1 Season concluded: Section 1 playoffs Manager: Brent Goracke, assisted by Zach Bares Strength of team/Key Players: The Irish feel they have a strong pitching staff, and hope to have more availability and better health from the staff in 2025. Zak Endres, Ian Segna, Korey Dahlberg and Tate Marland are having great college seasons and St. Patrick looks to them to lead us on the mound, along with their other veterans and young arms. Offensively, St. Patrick again simply looks to be healthier compared to last year. Mikey Gottschalk returns from injury and he’ll be an offensive spark plug, and is a shutdown defender. The offense will rely on our veterans Jack Friedges, Ryan Friedges, Seth Ambroz, Kal Brohmer, Ben Taxdahl and Ryan Wickman, with each also playing above average defense. Having Zach Stroh for a full season will also be an extreme positive. The Irish have also added a few more young high school players, who they hope can develop over the coming years. Challenges to address: Health. Last year was frustrating on that front, and the Irish should start 2025 in a much better place. Keys to success in Section 1: Section 1, which includes fellow DRS League members Elko and New Market, may be one of the deepest sections in the state. St. Patrick’s pitching needs to be an area of success and the Irish feel they can be one of the top staffs in the section. St. Patrick is confident their offense and defense will keep them competitive in every ballgame.

Veseli Warriors 2024 Overall Record: 6-23 The Warriors lost a best-of-three regional play in series to Faribault. Manager: Bill Dunker (fourth season). Team Strengths: Pitching and defense. Nate Picka is coming off of a season where in 46.1 innings, he struck out 55, walked only nine and had a sub-3.00 ERA. Luke Tupy will be healthy to start the season and is fresh off a fantastic career at St. Cloud St. His brother, Ben, continues to grow into a fine pitcher as well. Matt Perkinson brings a veteran presence to an otherwise very young staff. Max Fierst has developed into a fine DRS pitcher and has some big moments under his belt. Challenges: The Warriors have to hit better and be on base more and after that happens, be able to drivein runners. Veseli went through a bad drought at the plate through mid-season and never really recovered. Their best qualifying batting average individually was .284 (Riley Schaeffer) and the next closest was .250 (Kyle Carlberg). Keys to DRS success and a playoff run: The DRS isn’t as impactful to Veseli this season as we are the only Class C team in the league. That said, the guys will still want to beat all of the other teams. We have six Section 5C seeding games. If we pitch like we think we will and get some timely hitting, Veseli will be a tough outcome late July. Veseli welcomes six new faces to the roster in 2025, all current high school seniors. Several guys have also left the team, including longtime DRS veteran, Josh Simon. Nick Spitt, Joe Maxa, Luke Shepard, Nathan Simon and Mac Olson also are departing and I wanted to take a moment to thank those men for their contributions to Veseli baseball.

St. Benedict Saints Record last year: 7-10 record in Class C Manager: Wade Olsen. Defeated Shakopee 2-0 in first round series. The Saints were eliminated by Prior Lake in the region playoffs. Strength of the team: Pitching depth and top-of-the-order hitting. The Saints aim to improve their power production through the middle of the order. Region favorites are Jordan, St. Clair, Webster and Union Hill. “We have a really difficult schedule to start the year,” manager Olsen said. “Hopefully, we are able to place ourselves in the right spot at playoff time while keeping our pitching healthy.” Top offensive players: Nolan Eischens, Derek Albers and Mitchell Martin. Top pitchers: Matthias Duevel, Alex Mizsak, Cole Minnick, Alex Donkers and Cody Pirkl.

Union Hill Bulldogs Record last year: 18-9 overall. Where your season concluded: We lost Labor Day weekend to Young America in the state tournament. Manager: Dustin Steinhoff Strength of team: The Bulldogs have 30 guys on our team and all of them can play, so our strength will be a deep roster. Key players: We are returning Conrad and Derek Masberg from arm injuries. Our young guys who played college ball this spring will help us with pitching, defense and offense. Challenges to address: We have a big roster so getting everyone playing time and come playoffs we put our best players on the field. Keys to success in the DRS and advancing deep into the playoffs: Stay healthy. The Bulldogs have been bitten by the injury bug for the last few years and everyone else stepped up helping win two games during the state tournament and made it to Labor Day weekend.

Webster Sox Record last year: 17-6 Where your season concluded: We lost a hard first-round game in the state tournament to Buckman. Manager: Todd Klehn Strength of team / key players: The Sox see their strength as depth in pretty much all positions. They should have a fairly deep pitching staff this year with a couple of additions to go along with the returning pitchers. Augie Isaacson, Jake Ekness, Derrick Isaacson and Brooks Prochaska are veterans on the team. Other than a couple of new faces their core group of guys are back and they all contribute to the success of this team. Challenges to address: The biggest challenge for the Sox is to be consistent game-in and game-out. Unfortunately, Webster lost its back-up catcher but has a few players ready to assume that roll. Keys to success in the DRS and advancing deep into the playoffs: The biggest key for the Sox this year will be to play solid defense and have solid pitching. Webster believes if it can improve its productivity at the plate, the Sox will be a tough team to beat. The other factor will be to stay healthy. Anything else you’d like to offer? The DRS as always will be very competitive this year. It will take a complete team effort for us to get back to state this year.

Montgomery Mallards Record last year: 19-12 Where your season concluded: The Mallards lost in the second round of the state tournament to eventual champion, Waconia. Manager: Greg Westerman and assistant manager Mike Blaschko. Strength of team / key players: Montgomery’s strength include its depth and experience. This team knows how to win big games, Westerman said. The Mallards have a mix of tenured veterans and younger players all with region and state tournament experience. Key players include pitchers Ted Christian and Johnny Krocak who led the team with 52 and 40 innings pitched last year. Also returning are Matt Smith, Max Krautkremer, Brandon Gentz and Derek Christenson. Montgomery will look for more time on the mound this year from Nolan Readmond, Chris Johnson and Robbie Marshall. Offensively, Ryan Iverson led the team with a .388 batting average last year. Ben Anderson led with five HR and 24 RBI, Pat Lloyd with a .429 on-base percentage and Matt Smith with three HRs and 20 RBI. Montgomery’s new players include pitcher-infielder Chris Johnson, catcher-infielder Keegan O’Meara and pitcher Billy Melius, a town ball veteran with most of his tenure in Fairfax. Monty’s challenges: Playing a reduced schedule in 2026 will be Tom Flicek, fourth on the team with a .286 batting average and Mike Flicek, third on the team with a .391 OBP, and Jack Barnett, who pitched 23 innings with a 2.74 ERA and 36 strikeouts. Keys to success in the DRS and advancing deep into the playoffs: Keys for the 2025 Mallards will be to stay healthy, play solid defense and be playing at our peak at the end of the season. The team should have the depth to withstand a rigorous regular season, but also have the top end pitchers and veteran hitters needed to win in the playoffs. Anything else you’d like to offer? It’ll be an interesting inaugural season with the Minnesota Baseball Association’s new three-class system and the addition of Jordan, Eagle Lake and St. Clair into the playoff mix.

Lonsdale Aces Record last year: 10-15 Manager: Phil Tisdel Key player of the year will be: Marty Kalina and Ross Beumer they are a fast duo that make it hard for any fly ball to find the ground. Ike Pint, Joe Sabal, Spencer and Tegan Mellgren are the pitchers who will be painting the corners from the mound. New players: Lefty pitcher Jack Minnik, first baseman Tyler Sullivan and catcher-utility player Kellen Jirik. Challenges of the season: The Aces were hit with injuries last year at the end of the season. Staying healthy and playing error-free games. The key to success in the DRS, manager Tisdel said, is to score more runs than the other teams.

New Market Muskies Record last year: 7-7 in Section 1 The season concluded at the state tournament. The Muskies lost to Lyons Pub in a tough game, 6-5. Manager: Todd Bergstrom Strength of team / key players: New Market looks to have a couple pitchers back that did not play last year and a couple fielders. Manager Bergstrom sees the keys to success in the DRS and advancing deep into the playoffs as New Market’s pitchers throwing strikes, playing defense and two-strike hitting.