The Little Falls Flyers baseball team puts in the work at practice, leading up to the State tournament. The players fine tune their skills and fundamentals, before the first game against Totino-Grace in Chaska Thursday, June 13.
The players feel good and ready after the section championship win against Rocori Thursday, June 6, especially with multiple players going to state last year. Head Coach Chad Kaddatz said the group of players who have been playing for him in the last two years have shown to play in a systematic way.
“They’re just kind of methodical and business like with the way they go about things,” Kaddatz said. “They never get down. They don’t even get up too much. I mean they kind of stay keel and just keep pushing forward, which is kind of exciting.”
Some of the exercises during practice involved base running, players playing catch at different distances and getting their reps in at the batting cage. The team also broke out the pitching machine, shooting balls high in the air for a fly ball communication drill and shooting low for players to practice in bunting sittuations.
The Flyers veteran players who were at State last season look forward to returning for a number of reasons: improve on their performance from last year and to bond with their teammates. Senior Garrett Lindberg is one of those veterans.
“...just hanging out with my buddies, getting the experience of State. It’s a great feeling to go there...looking forward to playing some ‘MLB The Show’ (video game) in our hotel room.” Lindberg said.
With the 2024 season being the last for the seniors on the team, they reflect on their time playing on Kaddatz’s varsity team and how they grew as a baseball player. Charlie Smieja shared his first time playing varsity last year. He started out playing more of a defensive role with little batting action. Now, he’s more effective at the plate.
“I feel I can hit the ball harder, I can be more confident up at bat and be more confident up on bases,” Smieja said.
Amby Ploof also experienced a change in position during his career. He went from catching ground balls and short hits to protected the out field wall.
“My outfield skills have definitely improved since coming (into) varsity,” Ploof said “I moved from infield in my younger days and now I’m an outfielder.”
Towards the end of practice, the players were split into a “purple” and “gold” team to play in a bunting competition. One team on defense where stood inside the diamond, reacting to batters on offense bunting the ball. Certain amounts of points, were awarded depending on how the two teams executed each play. The purple team won at the end and the gold team had to clean up the field after practice. All fun and jokes aside, Kaddatz said the Flyers were looking sharp leading up to the state tournament.
“I thought practices have gone very well. It’s been fun to watch. We’re definitely ready to go,” said Kaddatz.
Before the Flyers went to Chaska, The Little Falls Community High School held a send off in the morning.
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