State tournament
Who: No. 4-seeded Little Falls Flyers vs. No. 5 Rocori Spartans
What: Class 3A state quarterfinals
Where: Dick Siebert Field, University of Minnesota
When: 12:30 p.m. Thursday
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Even though the Rocori Spartans are 21-3, winners of 14 straight games and are ranked fourth in Class 3A, they received the No. 5 seed in the Class 3A state tournament.
The Little Falls Flyers (19-5) earned the No. 4 seed, shading Rocori by 8/10ths of a point in the Quality Results Formula, and will face the Spartans at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals at Dick Siebert Field at the University of Minnesota.
The teams did not meet during the regular season but are familiar with each other. Before the 2011-12 school year, the teams met regularly as Central Lakes Conference members. The Flyers have been in the Granite Ridge Conference the last five years but remain familiar with the Spartans.
"We see them in the summer," Flyers coach Chad Kaddatz said, "so they're not a stranger to us. A few years ago, our VFW played them in the playoffs and they beat us like 2-1 in eight or nine innings. They scored on a suicide squeeze to win in the bottom of the ninth.
"They have a fantastic pitching staff. They're always well-coached. It should be one of those games where you expect a tight game and it will come down to one or two plays that will make the difference in who moves on."
One of Rocori's top players is left-hander Ryan Hennen who was selected to play in the Play Ball Minnesota High School Baseball All-Star Series and was named the St. Cloud Times Player of the Year. Hennen is 7-1 with a 1.084 ERA in 51.2 innings with 57 strikeouts.
Jake Brinker backs up Hennen with a 7-1 record and 1.845 ERA in 49.1 innings with 49 strikeouts.
Rocori's Nick Skluzacek also was selected to St. Cloud Times All-Area Team. He's batting .365 with 15 RBIs.
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The Flyers, who broke St Cloud Cathedral's 58-game win streak April 26, which was the nation's longest active streak, head to Siebert on a 5-game win streak.
They are led offensively by Justin Jenks with a .453 average, seven doubles and 11 RBIs. He was named the GRC's Most Valuable Hitter and MVP.
Austin Weisz is hitting .311 and Daniel Marod is at .309 with 20 RBIs. Hunter Swanson leads the team with 23 RBIs.
"One of the things in the second half of the season we've been very good at is capitalizing on our opportunities," Kaddatz said. "We thought coming into this year offensively we would put up bigger numbers. In reality, we haven't had huge numbers but we've done a great job taking advantage of the opportunities we get. We had a long stretch of like 6-7 games where we were outhit in every game but I think we actually won every one of those games.
"Justin Jenks has been unbelievable. He was at .470 for a while."
On the bump, the Flyers have a team ERA of 1.93 and four pitchers with comparable ability.
Thomas Miller is 7-1 with a 1.52 ERA in 50.3 innings. Chris Reller is 4-0 with a 0.62 ERA in 22.1 innings, Jenks is 4-0 with a 2.44 ERA with 34 strikeouts in 37.1 innings. Mitchell Boros is 3-2 with a 1.98 ERA in 42.1 innings.
"Coming into the year we thought (Boros) would be our ace," Kaddatz said. "He's had a couple tough-luck losses. When he's on, he's tough. He probably has the best stuff. He threw our game against Maple Grove this year and beat them 4-2.
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"Thomas is our workhorse. He doesn't have overpowering stuff like Mitch but he moves the ball around so well. He's our leader in strikeouts but he's not a strikeout pitcher. I think he had 10 strikeouts against Mora. He's more of a guy who puts the ball in play but teams have a hard time squaring him up. He gets a lot of ground balls. He doesn't get hit hard very often."
Jenks tossed a complete game in the Section 8 winners bracket game June 2-a 3-0 win against Bemidji. He struck out eight, walked one and allowed four hits. At one point, he struck out four consecutive batters on 12 pitches.
"Justin's performance against Bemidji in the playoffs is probably one of best pitching performances I've seen here," Kaddatz said. "He was just dialed in. He changed speeds, had a lot of jump on his fastball.
"All three of those guys, especially our seniors Miller and Jenks, are kids we look at and honestly believe they will not let us lose. ... They've been through a lot of pressure situations. They've been the guy on a lot of their teams that have been counted on over the years. You don't worry about them caving in in a pressure situation."
The seventh-ranked Flyers are making their first trip to state since 1999.
"Sometimes you feel as a spring sport you get a little forgotten out here," Kaddatz said, "so it's nice to see the community rally behind us. It's a big baseball town. We're kind of relishing this a little bit right now."
MIKE BIALKA may be reached at mike.bialka@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5861. Follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bertsballpark .
