Benton Community wants that return trip to state

VAN HORNE - It's been 22 years since Norway High School merged with Benton Community, and there's been nary a state championship since in this baseball-crazy county. Amazing as that sounds.You'd have thought merging Iowa's most storied small-school program with a successful bigger-school program would have paid off with multiple gold trophies by now, but for whatever reason, that hasn't happened. Maybe this year.Yeah, maybe this year."That's kind of one of the big motivating things for us," said Benton Community's Jonny Frese. "That's something that Coach has talked a lot about to us as players. To be that first team to win it all."If the name Frese sounds familiar, it should because it's a Norway name. Well, Watkins, actually, in this case, though those kids always attended Norway High.Frese is one of two returning all-staters for Benton and obviously an important player for a team that hopes there's a return trip to the state tournament. The Bobcats finished 35-8 in 2012 but lost an extra-inning heartbreaker to Decorah in the Class 3A quarterfinals.Benton Community has made it to state five years since the merger in 1991, finishing runner-up in both 1994 and 1995. Norway won eight Class 1A championships between 1981 and 1991."We thought last year we had that team," said Benton's Mitch Moser. "Hopefully we can come together this year and get back to Des Moines. That is a big motivator for us."Moser is Benton's other all-stater and combines with Frese to form one of the area's - and perhaps state's - top 1-2 pitching tandems. They combined to throw 124 innings last season, with a 16-4 record and earned run average of about 2.00.Also a senior, Moseractually was selected as an all-stater at shortstop. He's headed to play college ball at Division II Upper Iowa, Frese to D-III Wisconsin-Platteville."We think we have two pitchers who are number one pitchers. Kind of 1A and 1B," said Benton Community Coach Derek Anderson. "Mitch, as a pitcher, he's a bulldog, a competitor. He's really a coach on the field for us. Offensively, he's one of the better hitters I've seen in prep baseball. Jonny understands how to pitch. He has three pitches, and he can throw them any time and anywhere he wants.""I'd say we're a lot different as pitchers," Frese said. "Mitch can throw it about 85 or 86 miles per hour, which is really good in high school. I'm a guy who is more of a junkballer, I guess."The big question for the Bobcats is who joins Frese and Moser. Graduation hit hard and infielder Jacob Germann (a .480 hitter last season as a junior) decided not to go out so he could concentrate on golf, which he'll play in college.Senior outfielder Jordan McFarland hit .374 last season. But other than a couple of sophomore courtesy runners, he is the only other returning player who started in last year's state tournament game."Our focus is just to get better every day," said Anderson, in his third season. "Work on the process. We want to get back to the state tournament. Once you get there, anything can happen."Moser and Frese agree with their coach."We lost a lot of key players, but our class and the class below us have stepped it up and put in the work," Moser said. "I feel like we have the talent to go back to state, for sure.""People around here really love their baseball," Anderson said. "There are a lot of town teams in the area. You drive through these towns at night, and you see the lights ... People here love the game. With that comes a lot of expectations. That's all right."