Crow River Review Crow River Review Hot Stove 2/16

2016 ‘Hot Stove’ edition

Crow River Revie
Review

February
2016

Covering the Crow River Valley Baseball League

Volume 16, Number 1

www.herald-journal.com/sports/baseball/crvl

Plato’s fantastic season

By Jarrod Peterson
The Plato Bluejays enjoyed a tremendous
season that was capped off by a Class C
State Championship.
The Bluejays finished with a record of
29-7, and had two five-game winning streaks
and one six-game winning streak. They won
10 of their final 11 games, and only lost
consecutive games one time.
Their run-production throughout the season was unmatchable. The Bluejays scored
10 or more runs in 11 times, including 14 in
the state title game against Green Isle. They
aslo scored 10 or more runs in back-to-back
games three times.
On the mound, the Bluejays stifled opponents, holidng them to three or less runs in
22 games, including seven shutouts.
Leading the explosive offense was Chris
Odegaard, who had a batting average of
.466, which was second-best in the league.
Aside from his sky-high average, Odegaard
also hit for power, as he blasted eight home
runs, tying him with Green Isle’s Mac

Zachow for most in the Crow River League.
Odegaard finished with 23 runs batted in, 28
runs scored, and eight doubles, as well.
Odegaard wasn’t the only offensive threat
the Bluejays had, as his brother, Matt, tore
up the league, too. He batted a blistering .373
with three homers, 22 RBI, and a league-best
11 doubles. Tyler Lang boasted a .343 average, drove in 19 runs, scored 16 runs, and
smacked seven doubles on the season. Other
notable Bluejays are: Joe Nix (nine doubles),
Nolan Lepel (.308 batting average and 14
RBI), and K
Kyle Panning (16 runs scored, 13
RBI, and two homers).
While the offense was tremendous, the
pitching might have been even better.
The Bluejays finished with a team ERA of
2.28 and 135 hits in 174 innings.
Adam Prehn (6-4) and Tony Wischnack
(5-0) combined to go 11-4 in 2015, while
Prehn finished with a 2.26 ERA in 71.2 innings. While Prehn’s ERA was impressive,
Wischnack’s was even more so, as he posted
2.04 ERA while pitching 39.2 innings.

Kley named MVP after pitching Plato to
state championship

By Brad Salmen
After a pitching performance unmatched
in recent history, Winsted’s Tony Kley was
named MVP of the Minnesota Class C State
Amateur Baseball Tournament after leading
the Plato Bluejays to the championship.
Kley, who was drafted by Plato after the
Winsted Wildcats were knocked out of the
Region 7C tournament, was the winning

pitcher in four out of the Bluejays’ five victories, including three wins in the last three
days of the tournament.
Perhaps most incredibly, he pitched 14
innings on Monday, the final day of the
tournament, to win the final two games for
Plato.
continued on page 2

Minutes from December
CRVL meeting
The meeting of the Crow River Valley
League was called to order Dec. 14 at 7:05
p.m. by North President Dennis “Soup”
Campbell.
It was noted that all teams were present.
The secretary’s report from the Oct. 26
meeting was discussed, and Denis Zabel
(St. Bonifacius) moved to approve the minutes as written; Stephan Wiblemo (Glencoe)
seconded, and motion carried.

State board report

Campbell and Jim Zellmann reviewed
the Nov. 21 state board meeting. There was
a lot of talk about “Class B” and “border line
C” rosters. The state board will be keeping
an eye on teams and their rosters going into
the 2016 season, and make changes to classifications as deemed necessary.
The “College Player Rule” will be modified to emphasize “College Player” will
be required to play “Class B” if using the
college address. A college student that is
not affiliated with the baseball program at
their given college will be allowed to use
the college address to play with a “Class C”
team within that radius.
Another state board meeting took place
Jan. 9. (Meeting notes not available at press
time.)

Umpires’ contract

Secretary Kuerschner spoke about the
meeting that he attended with the NorthWest Umpires Nov. 21. Other leagues in
attendance were the DRS and RVL, as well

as two Class A leagues.
The topic that was discussed was the
requirements of two-umpire games for the
upcoming seasons. The fee for a two-man
game will not go up in 2016, and will remain at $90 per umpire.
In 2017, this will increase to $92 per umpire. The additional charge of $5 per umpire per playoff game will still be in effect.
The single umpire fee will go to $110 in
2016, and $115 in 2017.
In addition to this, the leagues present at
the meeting and the NW Umpires Association agreed in principal to have one game
in 2016 for each team be covered by a twoman umpire crew. (The team’s choice as to
which game).
Then, in 2017, have at least two games
covered by a two-man umpire crew. This
will give the teams an opportunity to plan
for the increase in cost and choose betterattended and potentially competitive games
to have the two umpires.
It will also let the leagues see how well
the NW Umpires can cover those games
and provide a better quality of umpiring.
Secretary Kuerschner also provided the
group with a printout of the fees, along with
what the costs for umpires was in 2015, and
what it could be in 2016 and 2017, depending on the different options for re-alignment
that will be discussed later in the meeting.
Dustin Brockoff (Carver), moved to accontinued on page 2