A’s determined to return to state
MATT KANE
Sports Editor
The Delano Athletics play in the North
Star League in Class C as part of the
Minnesota Baseball Association.
The A’s were 22-4 overall in 2019 and
19-1 in the North Star League.
Delano hosted the Class C state tour-
nament, but, unfortunately, the home-
town nine did not make it.
The A’s were the top seed for the
Region 12C tournament in Hutchinson,
but, as someone once said, they play
the games for a reason. No. 8 seeded
Loretto upsed Delano 5-3 in the first
round and Buffalo knocked Delano out
with a 12-8 win over the A’s in the elimi-
nation round.
Delano players were all over the sta-
tistical leaderboard in the North Star
League.
Infielder/pitcher Tyler Wolfe led the
league with a .500 batting average
and 36 runs batted in. He was also the
top closer in the league, and won the
MVP award.
Hunter Hart finished second in bat-
ting with a .447 average. He led the
STATE TOURNAMENT
APPEARANCES
1930, 1932, 1935 A 3rd, 1940, 1941 A 2nd, 1942
A 2nd, 1945, 1946, 1961, 1966, 1967, 1971 B 2nd,
1975, 1976, 1988 C Champ, 1992, 1996, 2001,
2004, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
NORTH STAR LEAGUE
HALL OF FAME
Valentine “Dutch” Styrbicky, Gene Bouley, Perry
Ditty, Van Merriman, Rich Ditty, Marshall “Bud”
Dainsberg, Dick Shaver, Al Juelke, Jerry Litfin,
Frank Muckenhirn, Ralph “Buzz Bernick, Richard
“R.T.” Traen, Tom Ditty, Jeff Janzen, Todd Traen.
MINNESOTA BASEBALL
HALL OF FAME
Perry Ditty, Rich Ditty,
Valentine “Dutch” Styrbicky
league with seven home runs, 34 hits
and 25 runs scored.
Jack Paulson also finished in the top-
10 in hitting with a .378 average in North
Star League games.
Delano’s Jeremy Maschino was
one of the best starting pitcher in the
league. He finished with a miniscule
1.36 earned run average. That led the
league.
Maschino was 7-0 with 48 strikeouts
in 53 innings.
Somehow, that season did not net
Maschino the pitcher of the year hon-
or. That went to Howard Lake’s Mike
Dockendorf, who went 7-1 with a 1.37
earned run average and 63 strikeouts
in 79 innings.
The team that enjoyed a huge 2019
regular season is mostly back.
Maschino is back on a pitching staff
that includes veterans Austin Schneider,
Jackson Royer, Jake Gleason and Matt
Arens, and second-year player Max
Otto.
Paulson and Hart are also two effec-
tive pitchers for the A’s.
The lineup will be without the league
MVP, as Wolfe is gone from the team. He
is now the hitting coach for the St. Louis
Cardinals’ Gulf Coast League team in
rookie ball.
Hart and Paulson will be back.
Hart plays first base. Paulson is a mid-
dle-infielder and can play all over the
Shaped by Play.
Play isn’t one thing. It’s everything. Anything.
Play doesn’t care what a body can or cannot do. Because play lives inside us. All of us.
And as we grow older. We come back to what we know. That play will always shape us.
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Official DELANO GUIDE BOOK 2020