The Parkers Prairie baseball program has a young team heading into the 2022 season.
“With only three seniors, we will be young but we have many quality ball players to choose from,” head coach Derek Denny said. “We have several underclassmen that will compete for varsity spots this year.”
Carter Thoennes, Cole Gesell and Jake Wagner will provide the senior leadership for the Panthers.
These three, along with junior Blake Adickes, junior Carter Theifschafer, and sophomores Zach Mrnak, Dylan Debilzen and David Revering, have varsity experience.
Last season, the Panthers finished 8-10 overall in the regular season, 3-5 in Section 6A games and finished 5-8 in Park Region Conference games. They finished fifth out of eight in the Park Region Conference and were the No. 3 seed out of the seven teams in Section 6A North.
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Parkers Prairie beat West Central Area 7-6 in the opening round of the playoffs before falling to Ashby and Browerville-Eagle Valley.
The reigning Park Region Conference champions, New York Mills, along with runner-up Wadena-Deer Creek, are the teams that Denny said are the programs to beat in the conference this year.
“The Park Region Conference has plenty of top-level baseball teams,” Denny said.
New York Mills is also the defending Section 6A champions.
Denny expects Section 6A to be a gauntlet once again this season.
“Section 6 is loaded with talent,” Denny said. “New York Mills, BBE, KMS, Ashby and USA are just a few (contenders) that come to mind. In the last several years, the winner of Section 6 has gone on to place very well in the state tournament.”
Denny said the team’s expectations this year are to be competitive and to make it deeper into the section playoffs.
“We'd like to make it into the second week of the section playoffs this year,” he said.
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He said that the team is sound defensively and has depth amongst pitchers.
“We should have nine guys on the field at all times that will play well defensively,” Denny said. “We also have some depth in our pitching staff, even if many of them are underclassmen.”
Denny said hitting is an area that is a work in progress.
“Guys will have to adjust to varsity pitching, and we need to have quality at-bats,” he said.
2022 PARKERS PRAIRIE BASEBALL
COACHES - Head coach - Derek Denny - 141-128, 14th season; Assistant coaches - Mark Lorine, Andrew Johnson
ROSTER - SENIORS - Cole Gesell, Jake Wagner, Carter Thoennes; JUNIORS - Blake Adickes, Jack Swedal, Gus Johnson, Carter Thieschafer, Hunter Holte, Justin Bushman; SOPHOMORES - Holden Traux, Zach Mrnak, Kayden Leiniger, Devin Egger, Cohen Noska, Dylan Debilzen, Isaac Grabow, David Revering, Seth Sansness, John O’Brien, Seth Schmidt; FRESHMEN - Shane Hanson, Mason Boesl, Leighton Gesell, Jackson Hubbling, Nolan Steidl, Ben Wagner, Colin Koep, Joe Johnson, Reid Hartman
PARKERS PRAIRIE BASEBALL SCHEDULE
April 5 at OTC, 4:30 p.m.
April 8 vs New York MIlls, 4:30 p.m.
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April 11 vs Browerville-Eagle Valley, 4:30 p.m.
April 12 at BHV, 4:30 p.m.
April 14 vs Wadena-Deer Creek, 4:30 p.m.
April 19 vs OTC, 4:30 p.m.
April 21 at Osakis, 4:30 p.m.
April 22 at New York Mills, 4:30 p.m.
April 26 vs Pillager, 4:30 p.m.
April 29 vs BHV, 4:30 p.m.
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May 3 vs Menahga, 4:30 p.m.
May 5 at Upsala, 4:30 p.m.
May 6 at Wadena-Deer Creek, 4:30 p.m.
May 9 at Brandon-Evansville, 4:30 p.m.
May 10 at Sebeka (UNC), 4:30 p.m.
May 13 at Menahga, 4:30 p.m.
May 17 vs Sebeka (UNC), 4:30 p.m.
May 19 vs BBE, 5 p.m.
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May 20 at Pillager, 4:30 p.m.
