GGF baseball preview: Sacred Heart sorts out new roles after major offseason departures

With so many players taken on expanded roles or getting their first major taste of varsity, Bethke expects the team to take their lumps through the first few weeks of the season.

There are just 14 players on the roster, which means many will also gather reps in junior varsity as well.

Bethke hopes the growth becomes increasingly evident as June approaches.

"We told them, 'You're going to struggle,'" Bethke said. "Let's not worry about that. That's a big part of this game. The hardest part is, when you're worried about it, it creates more trouble. We preach it all the time, and it sounds easy, but I know it's not. I hope eventually, by the end of the year, that's their mindset. You're going to make a mistake. Just don't let that cause the second one. We're going to have to score runs in non-traditional ways, and I'm confident our pitchers are going to throw strikes, and we'll have stuff to play behind."

Coach: Danny Marto.

2025 finish: 5-15.

Key returners: Sr. P-INF Keegan Hensrud; sr. CF Ezekiel Zimmerman; sr. P-INF Mason Griffin; so. P-C Brody Leddige; so. P-INF Nolan Marto.

Top newcomers: So. P-OF Bryce Korynta; so. OF-INF Brian Wiese.

Coach Marto says: "We're just going to have to build from last year. We've got mostly seniors and sophomores, and they're going to have to step up and take a bigger role. We didn't score enough runs last year, and if we can't do that again, it's going to be a struggle. We'll compete hard, and as long as we show up, we'll be in games. We've just got to take that jump. I'm looking for the sophomore class to take a jump — they're a year bigger, a year stronger. I'm looking for the seniors to step up and hopefully end their career at Central doing something they haven't, which is make the EDC tournament. There's a senior who played as a seventh grader, he's been with the program for six years now and never once made it to the EDC tournament. So that's something that we've got to strive for. And I think if we compete and go out and play, we give ourselves a chance to at least make it there, so we'll see what happens."

Coach: Mark Varriano

2025 finish: 15-10.

Key returners: Sr. P-INF Rilan Korynta; sr. P-INF Alexander Seaver; sr. OF-INF Max Grafenauer; sr. P-INF Griffen Haagenson; sr. C-INF Matt Dosch; sr. P-INF Zander Waind; sr. C-INF Adrian Gonzalez Rodriguez; jr. OF-C Cam Irion; jr. P-OF Caden Tostenson.

Top newcomers: Jr. P-INF Jacob Willardson.

Coach Varriano says: "We have a bunch of great kids and hard workers. The game is simple: you hit the ball where they ain't, you catch the ball and you throw it. If we can put pressure on the defense offensively, we should be OK. We seem to pick up the ball fine most of the time. But if we don't put pressure on the defense, we're not a bunch of home-run hitting kids, so we'll have to manufacture runs and then keep teams at bay the best we can."

Coach: Dustin Frize

2025 finish: 17-6, lost to Perham in the Section 8AA tournament championship.

Key returners: Sr. Carson McDonald; sr. Brody Anderson; sr. Cole Schmiedeberg; jr. Jakob Stassen.

Top newcomers: Jr. Mason Frize; jr. Chayson Boespflug; jr. Grant Kovar; jr. Carter Carlson; so. Cayden Walsh.

Coach Frize says: "They will compete. We've got guys that want to win, that will go out on the field and compete. I think we'll have two of the top pitchers in our section with (Jakob Stassen) and (Carson McDonald). They're going to hopefully throw a lot of innings for us. We're going to need some other reliever arms to step up and make sure they're throwing strikes. Outside of that, it's how can we generate runs with a lot of new guys coming into the lineup? There's going to be competitions for positions, and we're going to look to see guys that are putting the ball in play and running the bases hard to put pressure on the defense. I think early on, that's how we're going to have to win some games, is by doing that. Put balls in play and pressure on the defense with base running, and then it may come down to some small ball early on. I really expect our offense to pick up as the season goes on. And so even though we lost a lot of talent from last year, I think we have a group that are just competitors. A lot of them are three-sport athletes. They love the idea of competition, and they're just out to win."

Coach: Paul Bethke

2025 finish: 17-7, lost to Red Lake County in the Section 8A tournament elimination bracket finals.

Key returners: Sr. Isaac Sundby; so. Nick Satterlund; sr. Liam Larson; jr. Micah Zavoral.

Top newcomers: Jr. Jace Motl; so. Blaine Johnson; sr. Asher Zavoral; sr. Reez Eckerdt; fr. Grady Horken; fr. Joey Erickson.

Coach Bethke says: "Being young, it's kind of a blank slate type of deal. We expect our pitchers to just work on their consistency throwing strikes. Then on offense, be productive. Quality at-bats over worrying about batting average. Moving runners, base running is one of the things we focus on. Really, it's trying to get better every day, because that's what we're going to have to do. We're going to have to take little steps every day to build up until the important time: the end of the year. We're not necessarily trying to win games in April — although we try to win every game we play — we're preparing to win games in June. So whatever path that takes, we're just going to take it day by day."