{"id":93320,"date":"2025-06-10T12:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T12:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/93320\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T12:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T12:33:10","slug":"we-know-what-weve-got-to-do-spuds-baseball-team-gearing-up-for-1st-state-appearance-in-35-years-inforum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/93320\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We know what we\u2019ve got to do’: Spuds baseball team gearing up for 1st state appearance in 35 years – InForum"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOORHEAD \u2014 Members of the Moorhead Spuds baseball team didn\u2019t shy away from the fact that morale was quite low in the dugout between games last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Not just any pair of games, but the Section 8-4A championship. The Cinderella Spuds, blazing through the tournament as the No. 7 seed, needed just one win to punch their ticket to state for the first time since 1990.<\/p>\n

Their opponent, top-seeded St. Michael-Albertville, emerged from the elimination bracket and needed to win twice after having already been upset by the Spuds earlier in the tournament.<\/p>\n

Things were looking good for the Spuds in Game 1, taking a three-run lead into the sixth inning.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the Knights\u2019 bats woke up, plating four runs in the top of the frame and ultimately hanging on for a 4-3 win to force a winner-take-all Game 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was tough, it was a big momentum crash,\u201d said Spuds junior pitcher\/outfielder Carson Heinsch. \u201cIt gave (STMA) a little bit of a momentum boost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Momentum crash for Moorhead, indeed. Although the Spuds knew they were capable, it was in the back of their minds that the magical run could be on the cusp of coming to an end.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, the mood was pretty awful,\u201d senior pitcher\/infielder Drake Kunza said. \u201cSo I started telling people, one person at a time, \u2018Find a way to just forget it.\u2019 I just took a little walk, grabbed a sandwich and forgot about it. Some people went to the bathroom, some people just walked around and got some water.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone got their mood back going into that first inning of the second game and it was just uphill from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time around, the Spuds took a 4-3 lead into the seventh inning of Game 2. Heinsch started on the mound and before Kunza was called upon to close it out over the final two innings.<\/p>\n

Kunza fanned two STMA hitters and didn\u2019t allow a hit. With one final out to get, Knights junior Tyler Haring hit a blooper off of Kunza to shallow center field. Moorhead sophomore Taye Reich charged in from center before junior teammate and shortstop Riley Dickhaus made the play.<\/p>\n

After that, it was a dogpile of Spuds congregating at the pitcher\u2019s mound. Moorhead had qualified for the state tournament for the first time in 35 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty sweet,\u201d Dickhaus said. \u201cSaw the ball up, no one else saw it, knew what I had to do and just finished the job.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The celebration) was awesome. I mean, these boys worked so hard for this. Each and every one deserved it. We\u2019ve been waiting for this all year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Now, No. 6 seed Moorhead (14-10) will face No. 3 Minnetonka (15-9) in the state quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, at CHS Field in St. Paul.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The message) is to believe that we deserve to be in the state tournament and that we can be a team to beat these teams,\u201d longtime Spuds head coach Greg Salvevold said. \u201cAnd I think they understand that winning a section championship \u2026 business is not done and they\u2019re ready to make an impact at a state high school tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning a section title and qualifying for state seemed to be a far cry away last month. Moorhead dropped six games in a row to open May. After the sixth straight loss, the Spuds carried a record of 4-8, which included just one win against in-state competition.<\/p>\n

Since then, Moorhead has gone 10-2 down the stretch. The turnaround can be attributed to several factors.<\/p>\n

Spuds senior catcher Owen Tjon said it was a 6-2 win over Andover \u2014 which is the No. 2 seed at state \u2014 on May 22 that got the ball rolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe switch really flipped when we just kind of realized we have to come together,\u201d Tjon said. \u201cBefore, it was kind of people worrying about their stats or batting average or scouts and stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say the turning point was when we beat St. Cloud and Andover. With Andover being a top team, we realized we could really do something. So then we all put our minds to it, we all helped in our own way and that really boosted us forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really know, we just started putting everything together,\u201d senior infielder Austin Schwantz added. \u201cNothing was really going our way during that losing streak, but we started making plays and hitting the ball better. Ever since then, we\u2019ve just been playing well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior pitcher Easton Groce said the rotation has been less hesitant to throw hittable pitches to the opposition and trusting those in the field behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just emphasized that a lot of the reasons why we were losing was just stuff that wouldn\u2019t go our way,\u201d Groce said. \u201cLike bad hops and stuff like that. We kept sticking to our same routine and I think we really improved on pitchers throwing strikes, making (teams) put the ball in play and trusting the defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen hitting. Having clutch hitting \u2026 two outs or two strikes and putting the ball in play and that\u2019s led to runs being scored.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Moorhead<\/p>\n

Moorhead Spuds baseball player Carter Huotari throws to first base during practice Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at Matson Field in Moorhead as head coach Greg Salvevold looks on.<\/p>\n

Chris Flynn \/ The Forum<\/p>\n

One key aspect that has aided in morale is the Spuds\u2019 \u201cBench Mob,\u201d which has become the player-led cheering section within the Moorhead dugout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say the most special thing is that we\u2019re not just a team, we\u2019re a family,\u201d Reich said. \u201cEverybody loves everybody on this team. Nobody counts anybody out, everybody plays a role.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bench has a role, the \u2018Bench Mob\u2019 is what we like to call them. They played a huge part in the (section championship) and all of the playoff games we played and going into sections. They\u2019ve played a huge role and they\u2019re going to continue to play a huge role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salvevold expanded on the energy the Bench Mob brings to the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do the starting lineup on the bus on our road trips,\u201d Salvevold said. \u201cTheir voice, anywhere you go, they\u2019re talking about just the positive things of this team and being that voice in the dugout. Yelling and screaming and getting everyone up from the moment we step into the field to on the bus. It\u2019s so much fun to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Moorhead Spuds baseball team warms up before practice on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, at Matson Field in Moorhead.<\/p>\n

Chris Flynn \/ The Forum<\/p>\n

Moorhead is familiar with quarterfinal opponent Minnetonka. The Spuds played the Skippers in the second game of the season on April 18, a 6-4 Minnetonka win.<\/p>\n

Minnetonka had a six-game skid of its own to end the regular season before winning four straight postseason contests to claim the Section 2-4A crown.<\/p>\n

Following an inspired run as the No. 7 seed in their section, as Moorhead sets out for St. Paul, Spuds players now have full belief they can make a run to the state championship game at Target Field in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

\u201cJob\u2019s not finished,\u201d Dickhaus said. \u201cWe know what we\u2019ve got to do. Coming in kind of the underdogs. We\u2019re going to have a lower seed but we don\u2019t care. We\u2019re going to come and compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely have a shot coming into it. These teams are a lot bigger, a lot more pressure on us, but we can do it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOORHEAD \u2014 Members of the Moorhead Spuds baseball team didn\u2019t shy away from the fact that morale was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,21899,21900,21901,21902,21903,21904,21905,21906],"class_list":{"0":"post-93320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-minnesota-baseball-state-tournament","10":"tag-minnesota-high-school-baseball","11":"tag-moorhead","12":"tag-moorhead-baseball","13":"tag-moorhead-high-school-baseball","14":"tag-moorhead-spuds-baseball","15":"tag-moorhead-spuds-baseball-team","16":"tag-spuds-baseball-state-tournament"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114659092325968002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}