ELY—Below is a capsule look at the Ely baseball team.
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Head coach (years coaching): Frank Ivancich (22 years), 321-162 record.
Key losses to graduation: Seniors; Logan Loe was a Minnesota Class A All-State selection, 7A All-Section selection, All-Arrowhead Conference selection and All IRC Conference selection. Joey Bianco was a Class A All-Academic selection and 7A All-Section selection and Erron Anderson was an Arrowhead All-Conference selection, All-IRC Honorable Mention selection. Senior Preston Hines also contributed hitting .385 as the team DH.
Key returners: Junior Caid Chittum led us in hits with 35, RBIs with 30 and runs scored with 28 along with being named to 7A All-Section, All-Arrowhead and All-IRC Conference teams; as a SS-P Caid hit .415 batting average and also anchored our middle infield as he fielded at an impressive .970 clip handing over 90 attempts and putouts along with being recognized as one of the top 75 junior baseball players in the state of Minnesota. Senior pitcher-3B Drew Marolt will anchor our pitching staff: 4-4, 1.91 ERA, in 37 innings pitched last season. Drew also hit .395 and led us in extra-base hits with 11 last spring. Sophomore P Hunter Halbakken was 3-3 with an 1.97 ERA on the mound for us last spring with 32 innings pitched. Senior IF Elliot Levens returns and will be counted on in the field, pitching and at the plate. One of our most experienced players, Elliot hit .300 last spring and pitched 16 innings on the mound striking out 23 opponents posting a 3-0 record. Junior Ben Leeson will do a bulk of the catching for us.
Others expected to contribute: Returning upperclassmen who are in the mix include Senior OFs Deegan Richards, Sam Leeson and Zander Lislegard. Sophomores who are looking to contribute are Drew Johnson 1B-3B-OF-P, Jack Davies CF-P, Otto Devine OF, along with Freshman IF-P Owen Marolt.
Team strength: Going into the season I would think that our middle infield defense is our biggest strength. We can make the routine play very consistently and at the Class A level that will certainly keep us in most games. Another strength is our numbers, we have over 45 players in our program Grades 7-12. This is a great problem to have, but it also limits our practice time with so many players and teams that need games and most importantly practice reps.
Team weakness: We really struggle hitting with runners in scoring position. We need to do a better job at putting the baseball in play and cut down on our strikeouts. Our first game reinforced our concerns as we struck out 16 times including eight times looking at a strike three. Seven of those came with runners in scoring position. The ability to drive in runs when we are in scoring position has been our achilles heel the past few seasons. We need to replace two three year starters in CF Joey Bianco and 1B Erron Anderson who made us a very good defensive team the past two seasons.
Outlook for 2024 season: As with every year we go into the season with a goal to reach the Final 4 and have a chance to go to the State Tournament; our team went 16-9 in the spring of 2023 and placed 3rd in the section. Our middle infield play was definitely our strength. Our pitchers have to take another step forward as well, Drew, Hunter, Elliott and Caid will be key to our success. In addition, sophomores Drew Johnson and Jack Davies along with senior Brecken Sandberg and freshman Owen Marolt could add a much needed boost to our pitching staff.
Season goals: Get better with every week, unfortunately despite the seasonable spring we were set back by bad weather being forced to cancel several practices and currently we will be forced to play more games early on than having practice on the field due to field conditions.
Teams to beat in the section: South Ridge is the defending Section 7A Champs despite losing a lot. Cherry is very talented and is the odds on favorite with all key players returning from last season. Silver Bay and Cook County are well coached and in the mix as well.
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