North Dakota Preps

I've seen this in a few other threads about football and basketball....very curious to see what people think.  Who do you think are the greatest baseball players to come out of ND?

Of course, there are the obvious choices: Maris, Erstad, Helling, Haffner....

I'd like to see some others....I guess I'll start with a couple guys I saw play quite a few times over the years:

Dan Swift (May-Port-C-G, '95)  Unbelievable hitter....I remember his senior year he had something like 11 home runs and 22 hits in 36 at-bats....no one would pitch to him. He'd hit a bomb his first time up, then get walked every time after. Ended up an All-American at MaSU, and was the NAIA all-time homerun leader for a few years. 

Cory Pladson (Hatton, '98) Gatorade player of the year in 97.  Had a pile of no-hitters in his career, and I think about 75-80 homeruns in HS and Legion ball combined....and probably the most clutch player i've ever seen.  Anytime they needed a single, he'd hit a bomb.  Won a legion state championship in 98.

St. Mary's dominated in the mid 90's.  Going to 4 straight state championships.  Tim Olson, Dalton and Daren Eichele, and Kevin Benson were all unbelievable players for that team.  Andrew Gudmunson and the Shirek brothers from Minot who all play at Nebraska. 

Tim Sandy, AAA Mets organization

gotta have some of the players that played on the sawyer-surrey legion teams in the 90's, some of those teams were amazing

Eric Burns played for Surrey-Sawyer. He was one the most powerfull hitters in the state when he played. I believe he played somewhere around 97-00(not 100% sure).

yeah somewhere around there, i remember burns hit a homerun in a garrison woodbat tourney over 400 ft. pretty good for a high school kid

Tim Olson, Played at Bismarck, he is up and down in the Rockies organization now. He was with the Diamondbacks for awhile.

Tim Olson played for St. Mary's.

I wasn't aware of what school, I just knew the city.

Back in 2002's State Tournament Sam Lucier had a 1.000 OBP (10 for 10, 4 walks) He had 3-4 Homeruns and 10-12 RBI's. As a catcher he also had something like 8-10 throwouts to 2nd base. He led Cavalier to their first of 3 State Titles after 7 or 8 straight trips to state w/o one.

Brady Trenbeath was another contributer on that year's team, but he also was the Starting Pitcher in the next 2 year's state championship game. In 2004 he pitched a 9-inning championship game and had 12 K's after coming back from a broken neck. He pitched the game in a neck brace. He had multiple No-Hitters as a Junior and in his only game as a senior that he pitched in before breaking his neck he had a No-Hitter as well.

Yeah, I've heard about that before...pitching in a neck brace.  That's amazing.

Andy Ziegler (MPCG 2000-2003) should at least be mentioned when talking about the all time ND baseball team.  Zielger was the most feared hitter in probably the hardest Region (region 2) to get out of in baseball at that time.  He had double digit home run totals as a Junior and Senior, and also had 3 double digit home run years in legion.  Ziegler hit over .550 for his career and also played tough defense at first base and was a competitive pitcher as well, with the best left-handed pick off move in the state.

timmyg wrote:Andy Ziegler (MPCG 2000-2003) should at least be mentioned when talking about the all time ND baseball team.  Zielger was the most feared hitter in probably the hardest Region (region 2) to get out of in baseball at that time.  He had double digit home run totals as a Junior and Senior, and also had 3 double digit home run years in legion.  Ziegler hit over .550 for his career and also played tough defense at first base and was a competitive pitcher as well, with the best left-handed pick off move in the state.

Ha! really? wow, I had no idea.....Andy was the waterboy for my high school football team. (His dad was a coach)

I did know he played ball at MSU, but I didn't realize his high school/legion career was that good.

I don't put much stock into the stats of class B baseball players, I just don't think there is that much quality competition at that level.

When it comes to an All-time ND team, here are a few names that come to mind. Of course the current day major leaguers should be mentioned: Travis Hafner, Tom Olson, Darin Erstad, Rick Helling.  Mandan has produce some quality individuals: Jake Meyhoff, Aaron Amundson and the Klug kid that just got drafted.  Fargo has also produced some studs: Chris Coste, a kid by the name of Sandy that played around the same time that Helling did, and what about that Bjerke (or was it Gjerke, he was one heck of a QB as well, helped F.North to a state title).  The Shutt (sp?) kid from Jamestown just got drafted.  Jim Breuer played for the Bismarck Governors in the early 90's, I think he was drafted by the Dodgers.  Munich and Sawyer-Surrey had a couple of studs back in the early 90's as well. 

KPuck34 wrote:I don't put much stock into the stats of class B baseball players, I just don't think there is that much quality competition at that level.

The overall quality of players from class B is less then class A, yes. But there are plenty of quality players that come out of class b schools to play college ball.  A .350 class b player would hit .320 plus in class A. 

Theirs some class b teams that could beat a few class a teams.

[user=93]Ming01[/user] wrote:

Theirs some class b teams that could be a few class a teams.

I think Cavalier beat Shanley last year. :) Yeah I know Shanley is no good but they are class A. But yeah most of the time class A teams are gonna be better then class B schools thats just the way it is.

Shanley made it to state last year!  They had a huge run at the end of the season.

Guys that come to my mind from earlier eras:

Jeff Fiechtner -Fargo

Dennis Eastman -Whapeton

Mark Luther - Minot

Brock McPeak - Minot

Dave Lilleman - Minot

Tommy Assel - Mandan

Rich Carrier - Mandan

Scott Hewitt - Bismarck

Al Kunick - Bismarck

Mark Hummel - Bismarck

Chad Spotts - Bismarck

These go back to the 1960's and forward, all could have been on some sort of all ND team, I am sure a number of other fine baseballers from both the east and west were missed. Lets face it, really for a small state with a limited season, ND has produced many many fine ball players over the decades.   

Eric was a feared hitter in the Dac-10, both while at UMary and Minot State. He was also a decent quartetback which is why he was at Mary, did not get much of a chance and transferred to Minot.

To date Kevin Benson from Bismarck is among the most gifted baseball player I have seen play in ND high school/legion. He had all 5 tools, problem is the 6th, no drive or motivation, was drafted by Atlanta his senior year of high school, never played after legion, unless you count the cup of coffee he had at Hutchinson JC in Kansas.

The problem here is I personally feel he could have been an even better football player. I remember watching one of his freshman football games, he was playing D-end, he intercepted 4 passes and ran 3 back for TD's.

He had great size 6'4", 210lbs, excellent speed and quickness, plus he could jump, could have been a tremendous Safety a la Kelly Howe @ UND.

 

Where did Benson play high school ball?

St Marys

 

Kevin Benson played hs ball @ Smary's through his jr yr then CHs senior yr.

This has nothing to do with anything but I thought it was interesting.  I was surfin the net and found a story about a Fargo native, Chris Coste,  trying to break into the bigs.

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=122400&section=Sports