What is this feeling?

I sat back and looked at the scoreboard in right field. It read GUEST, 8 HOME, 4. It was an odd feeling. We had won our third conference game in the Dairyland League small division and the Abbotsford Merchants were tied for the top spot in the conference.

It’s no secret I’ve been a part of my fair share of losing teams. My senior year of high school baseball at Colby, we had gone 6-5 and lost in the second round of the playoffs. I began helping out with the program shortly after graduation. Those teams struggled to get off the ground probably because I was the one helping teach the kids fundamentals...

I then started playing with the Merchants in 2015. The team was pretty decent as we had a couple of pitchers that could lock down opposing teams and keep us in games. I remember a specific game against the Marshfield Chapparels where Andy Starzinski pitched a complete game shutout and we ended up winning 1-0.

I could confidently say that 2015 team was the best team I had played on... until now. I’m not saying the current Merchants team is better than that team, but the combination of youth and talent currently on the roster has the team in a great spot.

I turned to Trevor Stuttgen after we got done shaking hands with the other team and I said, “This feels weird to be on a good team.” He agreed as we laughed about the losing teams we had been on in the past. After the game, I checked the box score and saw the Merchants had recorded 17 hits. That has to be some sort of team record. It felt like the score should have been 15-1 or something similar with the way the bats were rolling.

I wrote about the direction of the program earlier this year and how impressed I was that Ryan Bargender has really taken the reins of the program and made it into something that can be enjoyed by the community.

The team is currently tied with three other teams for the lead in the Dairyland League small division, one of which the Merchants will play on Sunday in Pittsville.

The team will play three more home games on July 22, 23 and 30.

The end of the year tournament will take place August 11 - 13 in Rib Lake. Along those same lines, a lot of the young talent can also be seen on the Abbotsford 17u team which has a few games left this season.

If you can, make it out to a game and support the team while taking in some good baseball. The state of baseball teams in the Abbotsford/Colby area is in a good place once again.

Speeding

Through

L

ife