Wadena-Deer Creek Baseball Hungry For Redemption In 2019
In Wadena, there are high hopes for the Wolverines baseball team this season after they made it to the sectional final for the first time this century last year. Wadena-Deer Creek is off to a 3-0 start in 2019, and they have already had a lot to cheer about.
“We’re hungry and we want more,” Wyatt Hamann, Wadena-Deer Creek senior first baseman, said.
Hungry is the perfect word to describe the Wadena-Deer Creek baseball team this year after the Wolverines finished as the Runner-ups in Section 8AA last season.
“The kids are coming back this year with the mindset of a redemption season,” Kyle Dykhoff, Wadena-Deer Creek head baseball coach, said.
The redemption season is off to a good start for the Wolverines. Wadena-Deer Creek is 3-0, and Senior Justin Dykhoff tossed a no-hitter in the first game of the season against Pillager, but Dykhoff wasn’t even aware of his great performance.
“I thought about it a couple times, but I didn’t know until the very end,” Justin Dykhoff, Wadena-Deer Creek senior pitcher, said. “Kyle came up, gave me a high-five and said no-no.”
“It was a special moment as an uncle and a coach,” Kyle Dykhoff said. “Justin had a great day on the mound and had everything working.”
“He had 16 strikeouts, I think I touched the ball twice the whole entire game,” Hamann said. “I was picking on him and I said, ‘At least let me play.’”
One pitcher can’t carry a team all the way, however, and Wadena is confident that their other arms can get the job done.
“Our pitching is there,” Kyle Dykhoff said. “We have a lot of guys that can throw, and they are just waiting for the opportunity.”
When Kyle Dykhoff took over as coach 11 years ago, he inherited a winless team, but Wadena-Deer Creek is now a force to be reckoned with on the baseball diamond.
“At the beginning of the year we write down what are goals are,” Colby Schertier, Wadena-Deer Creek senior middle infielder, said. “In past years it’s been just to win a few games, but recently it’s been to go to state.”
And if the Wolverines get to state…
“It’d mean everything,” Justin Dykhoff said. “We usually win a lot in youth baseball, but I don’t know if we ever have in varsity, and I’m hoping this year can be the year.”
Wadena-Deer Creek will put their perfect 3-0 record on the line tomorrow, April 18th, when they take on Pillager.
