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Baseball Day Minnesota 2024: Event Preview

May 6, 2024
Parker Hageman
Prep Baseball Minnesota

Minnetonka, Minnesota—Baseball Day Minnesota kicks off at 10 AM on Saturday, May 11th, with a matchup between crosslake rivals Wayzata and Minnetonka. 

 The day will feature on-field action from six of the top programs from around the state, but the off-field activities will be equally exciting:

The Minnesota Twins, the St. Paul Saints, and others will provide entertainment. Fans will have the opportunity to interact with mascots TC Bear and Mudonna; kids will be able to hone their skills at the inflatable hitting stations, participate in an on-field mascot race, and more.

The inaugural Baseball Day Minnesota will be loaded with talent, including 43 ranked players in attendance. Over 20 college commits and plenty of uncommitted talent will be on display. Here's a breakdown of the day's matchups:

GAME ONE | 10 AM 

#1 WAYZATA VS   MINNETONKA


At 11-0, the Trojans are currently the state’s top team in our Power 10, and for good reason. Coach Dewitt can call upon several talented arms, including North Carolina commit Riley Leatherman and Noah Filer (2025, Purdue commit), who worked six innings with nine strikeouts against Edina in his last outing. Add Gaard Swenson (2024, Hillsdale), Brady Lash (2024, University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse), and Viet Nguyen (2024, Uncommitted), and there is no shortage of innings to go around.

Offensively, they have outscored their opponents 95 to 24. University of Minnesota-Duluth commit Michael Reem has been swinging a hot bat, finishing the previous week 5-for-8 with a home run and five batted in. Lash and Swenson have also been solid contributors, but there’s not a lot of rest in the Trojans lineup for opposing pitchers. 

Minnetonka began the year as a Top 5 team, but the season has been a mixed bag for the Skippers. A talented and experienced roster, the same core of players heading into Baseball Day Minnesota week with a 6-6 record were also the ones that marched into the 2023 state tournament and left with a third-place finish. Will Koeppen (2024, St Thomas) and Lincoln Heitkamp (2025, uncommitted) have generated the offense. Koeppen is slugging .615 with four doubles, a triple, and a home run. He also leads the team with 11 runs scored. Heitkamp has a .500 slugging percentage and leads the team with five doubles.

Max Nelson (2024, St. Thomas) and Jack Butterworth (2025, uncommitted) lead the team in innings, with Nelson owning a 2-0 record and Butterworth striking out 25 in 16.2 innings. 

The last time the Trojans and the Skippers faced off, it was a nail-biting encounter. The Skippers held a 2-1 lead into the sixth, only for the Trojans to tie the game and eventually win it on a walkoff in the next inning. This sets the stage for an intense and competitive Baseball Day Minnesota opening game, leaving fans on both sides eagerly anticipating the rematch. 

Game one is presented by Metro Baseball League:

GAME TWO | 2:30 PM 

WOODBURY VS  #3 STILLWATER


Stillwater is currently our third-ranked team in the Power 10. For years, the Ponies have been known to play clean, aggressive baseball in all facets. This year appears no different. Their offense goes through Charley Rowan (2024, University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse commit). Through 12 games played, Rowan has the team's highest average (.474), most hits (18), most RBI (12), runs scored (11), and stolen bases (5). Other contributors include Alex Boston (2024, University of Minnesota-Duluth), who has two home runs and has driven in another 10, and Owen Maslowski (2024, University of Wisconsin-Parkside), who has added another five extra-base hits, including two home runs.

Boston has thrown the most innings (17), while left-hander Dylan Bloom (2025, uncommitted) is 3-0 with a minuscule 0.43 ERA.  

Woodbury's staff is led by Jack Gessner (2025, uncommitted), who has thrown 20.2 innings with 28 strikeouts and a 1.69 ERA, and George Bjellos (2024, uncommitted), who has two wins and two saves while primarily working as a reliever. Lucas McNellis (2024, University of St. Thomas) drives the offensive with the team lead in batting average (.326), hits (14), home runs (3), and RBI (12). 

 

During their first meeting in April, Woodbury won a close game 1-0 in a pitcher's duel. The Royals scored a run thanks to a double by McNellis, followed later by a single from Tommy Kroohn (2024, University of Wisconsin-River Falls), which drove him in. Gessner pitched six innings, allowing only two hits and striking out nine batters, while Bjellos came in to pitch the seventh and earned the save.

Stillwater and Woodbury have been 16-16 in games against each other over the last ten seasons. 


GAME THREE | 7 PM 

CRETIN-DERHAM HALL VS  #5 EAST RIDGE

Cretin-Derham Hall is the storied program that has been on the upswing over the last several years, hoping for another chance to add to their state title collection. Led by two Division 1 commits in Jake Quinn (University of Minnesota) and Paul "PJ" Jones (Maryland), the Raiders have outscored opponents 22-to-2 over the last week. In that time, Zander Coy (2025, uncommitted) launched two home runs and drove in five. John Henry Kohorst (2025, University of Iowa) is a left-hander with tons of talent on the mound. In the two team's last meeting, Kohorst struck out 10 Raptors in six innings.

The Raptors, of course, are the reigning 4A state champions. While the season started slow, East Ridge has rattled off six straight wins and has climbed back to the 5th spot in our Power 10. During that stretch, middle-of-the-order bat Alex Mezzetti (2024, University of Illinois-Chicago) has two home runs and a triple, while leadoff hitter Luke Skinner (2024, Loyola Marymount) had multi-hit games in five of the six contests.


Like Wayzata on the west side, East Ridge has an equally impressive pitching staff, headed by Jake Reigert (2024, Ole Miss) and Max Arlich (2024, Texas A&M), but has had solid contributions from Will Preimesberger (2024, USC-Lancaster) and Ashton Poole (2024, Iowa Central).  

In their prior meeting, Cretin took a 3-1 lead into the seventh, where Junior Future Game alum Jack Drieman (2026, uncommitted) hit a two-run double to score Jones and Graham Styles (2024, Westmont College). East Ridge would fall to the Raiders, 6-2.

OFF-FIELD ACTIVITIES

+ Visits from TC Bear and Mudonna
+ Inflatable batting stations provided by the St. Paul Saints and Dicks Sporting Goods
+ Twins Youth Clinic Stations 
+ Kids Mascot Races
+ Shirt Cannon
+ More

Kids 12-and-under wearing their team's jerseys will have free admission.

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