Cyclones baseball takes home awards
After a state tournament berth, it’s no surprise the Cyclone had eight players recognized. Cade Sears and Stephen Leinen made 1st Team, Hayden Soma, Quinn Koesters, Jozef Reisz and Matthew Sorfonden made 2nd Team in all district and Braydon Ernst and Brock Lemrick took home honorable mention in all conference.
“They’re all very deserving getting honored for the work that they did this year,” said Cyclones Head Coach Heath Stein. “I’m proud of them. I’m happy for them. It’s cool that other teams and coaches took notice that those guys had a heck of a year.”
Sears led the team in hits with 49, four of which were home runs and a had a .402 batting average. Leinen led the pitching staff with a 6-4 record with 39 strikeouts and a 4.65 earned run average.
“Cade is a four-year starter now and has constantly grown as a player and very gift athletically,” Stein added. “Stephen got better year after year, so very deserving of that 1st team.”
Soma had little experience as a catcher before the season, but played well enough to make 2nd Team. Koesters offensively had 43 with a .344 batting average and 31 runs batted in. On the mound, Koesters was dominant in relief with 21 1/3 innings pitched and 33 strikeouts. Opponents only hit .167 against him.
“Hayden, he didn’t catch very much in his life and he tackled that everyday role for us behind the dish and did an awesome job,” Stein said. “Quinn took huge strides. On the mound, he was 5-0.”
Reisz had a .374 batting average with 37 hits and 24 runs batted in, including a home run. Sorfonden batted .327 with a home run and 27 runs batted in with 36 hits.
“Jozef just exploded on the season as a first year starter and got hot as heck during the middle of the season and hit up around .370-.380,” he said. “Sorf is an absolutely fantastic defensive first basemen. He runs the bases really well and he did a good job getting on base.”
On the mound, Ernst had a 2-1 record with a 4.40 earned run average and 29 strikeouts in 41 1/3 innings pitched. Lemrick was stellar out of the bullpen with a 3-1 record, 34 strikeouts with a 3.03 earned run average in 37 innings pitched.
“Brock, he didn’t throw a lot last year and had a lot of success,” Stein said. “Ernst, he’s been in the top 1-3 of our rotation for the last few years and he had another fantastic year.”
With a majority of these kids returning next season, Stein is optimistic they can build off this year’s success and have another run next year.
“Of all the guys coming back, you just look for continued growth and maturity and their approaches at the plate and their approach overall game after game,” he added. “We’ll miss Stephen and Cael a ton, but there’s a good group of guys coming back to hopefully make another run.”