Baseball: These Litchfield Dragons are dormant no more

May 15—LITCHFIELD — The

had five sophomores getting significant playing time two seasons ago.

Sporting such a young team, the Dragons took their lumps. Litchfield went 4-17 in 2024 and 7-16 in '25.

It was a tough start for those then-sophomores: Alex Medina, Tripp McCann, Gideon Boerema, Beau Schultz and Jordan Abbott.

"We tried to impress on them two years ago that there's going to be some growing pains here," said Dragons head coach Jeff Wollin. "We only had two seniors that year (in '24) and several of our sophomores probably should have been playing JV that year. ... In our conference and our section, it's tough to win with a lot of sophomores in the lineup."

Now seniors, this flight of Dragons has helped their squad take off.

Heading into Friday, Litchfield sports a 15-5 record and is ranked 10th in the Class AA state poll by the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association.

The Dragons resumed a doubleheader with Annandale on Friday after play was suspended Thursday due to lightning. Litchfield hopes to clinch a top-two seed in Section 5AA by winning its regular-season finale Monday at Eden Valley-Watkins.

"It really helped just us five being there because we built as a group," said Schultz, who pitches and plays shortstop. "Each year, we kept taking that into the next year and the next year. Finally, our senior year, us five have three years of experience and ... that's helped us grow as a team."

Litchfield's offense has had a substantial turnaround. The Dragon average 8.7 runs per game. They averaged 5.0 runs in '25 and 3.9 in '24. Medina, the lead-off hitter and center fielder, leads the state with 31 runs scored, according to

.

Litchfield has scored double-digit runs in eight games and is 7-1 in those contests.

"It's really just going up there (and) first-pitch hacking," McCann said. The catcher leads the Dragons with a .433 batting average through 20 games. "Be aggressive, just find your pitch and drive it. With that, you have to be patient and find your pitch. We got a ton of walks this year.

"Getting their starter out early and going through their bullpen, that's been pretty good for us this year."

That plate patience was showcased in the Dragons' 12-4 win over Norwood Young America on April 20. The game was tied 4-4 through nine innings before Litchfield scored eight runs in the top of the 10th.

"They didn't have any pitchers left and boom, we went to town because we got their best pitcher out," Schultz said. "I think half of our order batted twice. We were not ready for that. It was awesome because we knew it was never enough. As easily as we can get eight runs, they can do the same thing."

The Dragons also feature two pitchers with sub-2.00 ERAs. Leading the way is Boerema with a 4-2 record and 1.69 ERA with 45 strikeouts over 37-1/3 innings. Schultz is 4-1 with a 1.96 ERA and 20 strikeouts over 25 innings. Tyler Eichner has 22 strikeouts over 20-2/3 innings and Abbott has 20 strikeouts over 24 innings.