Confident Offense

• Ben Herauf

Press Photo by Chris Aarhus Dickinson Roughriders cleanup hitter Ben Herauf, middle, is a two-time state tournament MVP with a dominating performance last weekend, helping Dickinson win its second consecutive Class A state championship.

Talk about it

The Dickinson Roughriders averaged almost 16 runs a game at last weekend’s Class A American Legion state tournament en route to their second consecutive state championship.

The title means Dickinson gets to play in the Central Plains Regional against the Apple Valley (Minn.) 76ers at 2 p.m. today in Minnetonka, Minn.

The Roughriders showed their offensive prowess at state, but do Dickinson coach Andy Emard and his players really believe they can duplicate that offensive success against other state champions?

“We’re not going to face many teams that have the pitching depth and arms that Fargo had,” said Emard, whose Riders beat Fargo twice at state, totaling 23 runs in two games.

“The thing we always expect is quality (at-bats). We expect to go up with a certain approach. The runs will take care of themselves.”

But maybe it won’t take a deep pitching staff to beat the Riders. What if the opposing team has that shutdown elite pitcher?

Emard had an answer for that too, citing the team’s success against Minot ace Ryan Bollinger.

“Not many teams are going to roll out pitchers better than Bollinger,” Emard said. “These teams are all state champions, but they’re still high school-(aged) kids. Maybe they’re a little more complete or have one good horse, but they’re not going to be that much better than Bollinger or the arms from Fargo.”

Frenzel said he knows there will be better pitching, but that he still expects the team to score plenty of runs.

“Fargo’s got a great pitching staff and we proved we can hit the ball,” Frenzel said. “Every team has that ace. If you can get past that first or second day, the advantage goes to the teams that can hit the ball.”

Frenzel’s not far off.

At last year’s Central Plains Regional in Minot, the teams that won on the first day had an average of 12 runs per game, compared to more than three runs per game for the losing teams. In fact, of the 14 tournament games played, the winning team scored double-digit runs 11 times.

“Last year, we saw that teams are going to put up runs,” said Laylock, who will start on the hill today. “We are a hitting team. We’re going to have to hit the ball.”

Two-time state tournament MVP Ben Herauf hopes to keep his bat hot after lighting up North Dakota teams at state. In his final three games, he was 11-for-12 with four home runs and 19 runs batted in.

“Our bats have always been there,” Herauf said. “We’re going to see better teams. We need to play better defense and throw strikes.”

The Riders head into today’s matchup with vengeance on their minds. Apple Valley beat Dickinson 15-2 at the Gopher Classic earlier this season.

“It was a tight, close ball game … it was pretty much one inning that led to (the score),” Emard said. “We had some errors and walks.”

Apple Valley failed to win Minnesota’s state championship, falling to the Rochester A’s 4-3 on a game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth. Minnesota gets two berths into regionals as Rochester will be playing in the Great Lakes Regional in Wisconsin. At the Gopher Classic, Dickinson beat Rochester 9-0.

As for Apple Valley, Emard said he remembers one specific thing.

“They’re big,” Emard said. “When we roll out on the field, not many teams can match us size-wise. They’re a big ball club and they can run, hit and throw.

“They’re the real deal, but so are we. I’m excited about our guys’ chances.”

Tags: legion baseball, sports, dickinson, roughriders