Beckman back to the state tournament

MARION - The Dyersville Beckman Blazers are familiar with the way to get to Des Moines.

The difference this time is these Blazers are at the wheel instead of being along for the ride.

With a number of new starters, third-ranked Beckman earned a chance to continue its championship reign, defeating No. 4 Wilton, 5-2, in the Iowa High School Athletic Association Class 2A substate final last night at Linn-Mar baseball field at Oak Ridge Middle School.

Beckman (27-13) is the second seed and plays No. 7 Hinton (23-8) on Monday at Principal Park in Des Moines, starting at 6 p.m.

'These guys had a lot of pressure on them all year to get down there,” said Beckman Coach Tom Jenk, who has led the Blazers to 15 state tournaments and four championships. 'Right when we got back last year with the state championship everybody was talking three right away.”

The whispers of defending titles were somewhat ignored. They didn't turn their attention on state until punching their ticket Tuesday night.

'You just try not to focus on it,” Senior outfielder Mitch Steger said. 'You just try to focus on baseball and having fun.”

The Blazers enjoyed celebrating after the victory, gathering with family, friends and fans on the field. They talked of work only being halfway complete and expressed the enthusiasm of starting a new season.

'It is exciting,” said junior Eric Boeckenstedt, who had two hits and scored once against Wilton. 'It's one of the best experiences you will have in baseball at the high school level. All that work in January really pays off for us.”

Beckman relied on its fundamentally strong approach at the plate to manufacture runs and defense to hold Wilton at bay. The Blazers ace Zac Lyon threw 6 2/3 innings, retiring the first eight batters and keeping the Beavers off the board for the first six innings. Lyon has dedicated this season to pitching after undergoing brain surgery in January. He improved to 8-3.

'He hasn't taken a cut or swing for us all year. He hasn't picked a bat up,” Jenk said. 'All he's done is pitch and I think it has worked out pretty good.”

Jenk said Beckman went back to square one to start the postseason, working on the basics. It has been a winning formula for them.

'We wear it on our sleeves - 21 outs,” said Jenk, referring to a patch on his shirt sleeve. 'We got it done in 21 tonight.”

Beckman scored its first run, capitalizing on two Wilton errors in the third, allowing Tony Anstoetter to score. The Blazers broke it open with two runs in the fifth. Logan Welling's sacrifice fly scored Boeckenstedt and Riley Vorwald's RBI single drove in Steger, who matched Boeckenstedt and Tyler Knepper with two hits apiece.

Anstoetter and Steger helped produced two more runs in the sixth, logging consecutive RBI singles. Beckman had a comfortable 5-0 margin, heading into the final innings.

'It felt good to contribute to the team because I was struggling at the beginning of the game,” Anstoetter said. 'To get that through, helped my confidence and helped the team.”

Wilton had its chances putting multiple runners on each of the last five innings, but only scored in the seventh. The Beavers strung together four straight two-out base hits, chasing Lyon from the game, before Vorwald faced one batter to close the game.

Aaron Cameron had three hits, including two triples, and Javin Drake had two hits and an RBI for Wilton, which ended the season 26-7.

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