Section 7AAA preseason favorite Hermantown is scheduled to open its 2023 baseball season April 4 at Denfeld.
The good news is that the Hunters’ home park, historic Wade Stadium located in the shadows of the iron ore docks in West Duluth, features a synthetic turf infield and outfield and normally is one the first diamonds in the region to host games.
But, given that the northland has one of the snowiest winters all-time, will Wade Stadium be playable by then?
“We’re preparing like we’ll play our regularly-scheduled opener,” fourth-year Hawks coach Billy Tafs said on Sunday afternoon.
What is painfully certain for Hermantown is that its home park, Fichtner Field, likely won’t be playable until mid-May, even at the earliest.
“Our field doesn’t drain well and last spring we had two practices there before hosting the section tournament,” said Tafs. “We scrambled all season to play our home games in Cloquet, at Wade and in Superior.”
Hermantown’s new baseball and softball turf field complex at the same location is tentatively scheduled to be available for play in spring 2025, Tafs said.
In the meantime, the Hawks will continue to be one of northeastern Minnesota's best programs despite Fichtner’s history of unplayability.
“We were 14-6 last year and lost to Chisago Lakes 10-8 in the 7AAA semifinals, in Hermantown,” said Tafs. “We return all of our top pitchers and every starter from a year ago, including 12 seniors. Five or six of our kids have already signed to play college baseball, so we have very high expectations for this season.”
Top returning pitchers are hard-throwing lefthander Dawson Rannow and righties Cruz Runyan and Wylee Arro.
“Dawson, Cruz and Wylee are our numbers 1-2-3, in that order, and I’d put them up against any of the best pitchers in 7AAA,” said Tafs.
Returning positional starters include burly catcher River Freeman, speedy centerfielder Wyatt Carlson, sure-handed shortstop Garron Opsahl and steady second baseman Carter Gunderson, among others.
“They’re our best hitters, for average,” said Tafs, of the Big Four. “Overall, our lineup from top to bottom is the best we’ve had in my first four years.”
The Hawks held arm care-only workouts last week and started tryouts Monday.
“We have 45 kids grades 8-12, a new high number of candidates for our program,” Tafs said.