DHS focuses on West Region Tournament

A majority of the Dickinson High baseball team has been through this scenario.

The Midgets show flashes of brilliance, but can't compound back-to-back solid performances.

As a team, it was during the 2012 American Legion season when the Dickinson Roughriders went on a Cinderella run to fall one game short of the Central Plains Region Tournament championship game.

The Midgets hope to click on all cylinders in the West Region Tournament beginning today at 12:30 p.m. in Mandan against Bismarck Century.

"I think we could turn it around at the end of the year like we did last summer," Dickinson senior Alex Huschka said. "We have the talent to do so. We just have to play for each other and not worry about ourselves."

Dickinson will be the No. 4 seed, while Century is the No. 5 seed. The two teams will play in the second game of the tournament at Memorial Ballpark.

"We been saying it's been night and day," Dickinson head coach Pete Dobitz said. "We're hoping that the sun is going to shine on us and we're going to have our good days. I tell the boys, 'The ability and physical part is there.' They just have to come out with that tough, strong mental approach. We have to compete all the way through the game."

The Midgets enter the tournament with an 11-9 overall record. Dickinson has four players who have played in more than 15 games, hitting above .300 and three others are close to that mark. Junior Brett Schweitzer leads the team with a .375 average with four doubles, nine RBIs and has scored six runs. Junior Dylan Skabo is hitting .321 with four triples and 12 RBIs with a team-high 15 runs.

"We've definitely had our ups and downs this season," Schweitzer said. "We're just trying to build off those positives and let those negatives go."

Dickinson sophomore Luke Herauf leads the pitching staff with a 3-0 record with a 1.56 earned-run average and 16 strikeouts over 18 innings. He's also supplying a presence at the plate, batting .324 with five RBIs.

As a team, the Midgets have a 4.13 ERA and are batting .258.

Mark Erickson's season has been somewhat slowed after taking a pitch to his ankle during the season opener against Minot. Yet, the sophomore has 2-1 record on the mound with a 1.75 ERA.

"We're going into the tournament with a pretty deep bullpen and at this point of the year, you don't need it as deep as we have it, but we developed some good pitchers this year," Dobitz said. "Offensively, we aren't exactly where we want to be, because I don't think anybody has seen us break out yet. This would be a great time for that to happen."

Coming into the season, Dickinson was picked to finish No. 2 in West Region and No. 3 in the state. The Midgets are defending West Region champions and Huschka knows the team has the ability to put together another title run.

"We have enough on our team going into this tournament that doesn't want to lose," Huschka said. "We are going to play our hardest (so) we can to get two wins."