Lumberjacks Take On Fargo Shanley With Wood Bats

Wes Vork-NSO

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May 21

Wes Vork-NSO

Walking into the Cloquet vs. Fargo Shanley baseball game on Saturday, one could tell things were a bit different; you could hear the crack of the bat rather than a ping. The reason was the game was being played with wood bats rather than Aluminum. In the afternoon matinee game Fargo Shanley defeated the Lumberjacks by a score of 15-3 in five innings.

Each year the Fargo Shanley baseball team makes a trip to the Northland to play four games against Northland teams. Because the games are played in Minnesota the local teams could request that aluminum bats be used. However North Dakota is a wood bat state where all the high school games are played with wood bats, so the local teams choose to use wood bats also. Fargo Shanley actually brings along a spare half dozen bats for the opposing team to borrow.

This is the eighth year the Deacons have made the trip east to the Northland. It started back then as the brainchild of Fargo Head Baseball Coach Joel Swanson, who is originally from the area. Swanson grew up in Silver Bay and played college baseball at St. Scholastica, graduating in 1992.

In the beginning Fargo Shanley would play against Duluth Central, Duluth Denfeld, Northwestern, and Silver Bay. “I was able to get the games scheduled in the beginning because I played college ball with Steve Lahti who coaches at Northwestern and (then coach) Dennis Koviak from Central. Also I student taught under Denfeld A.D. Mark Krysiak and Silver Bay was my hometown.” Swanson explained.

Currently they play games against Northwestern and Central on Friday. On Saturday they play against Proctor, which has another St. Scholastica connection with Head Coach Kyle Wojtysiak playing baseball for the Saints more recently. When Duluth Denfeld and Central combined, it left a spot open and Cloquet Coach Rick Stowell jumped at the chance to participate. “We love it and hope to continue participating, the wood bats are great, Minnesota should be using them.” Stowell explained.

Swanson, a member of the states baseball advisory board explained that North Dakota became the first state in the nation to switch to wood bats. “We wanted to try it as a four year experiment. In order to evaluate wood bats we felt it best for the kids to use them from all the way from freshman to seniors.” Swanson Explained. After the four year experiment ended, the North Dakota baseball coaches voted nearly unanimously to keep the wood bats.

According to Swanson, the main reason for the switch was for safety, but he also believes the wood bats return the game of baseball to the way it used to be. “The power numbers are down a little bit, but the little things, the bunting, stealing, hit and runs, the fundamentals of the game are really coming back strong.” Swanson added that it makes the kids better hitters also, explaining. “You have to learn how to get your hands in, you have to put the barrel on the ball and there isn’t the end of the bat and handle flairs like you get with metal.”

Although the wood bats break once in a while, the use of composites makes that a rarer occurrence. Even with a few broke bats Swanson explained the overall cost of using wood is less because the cost of a wood bat which is around $100.00 is much less than aluminum which can run as high as $300.00 per bat.

One of the biggest benefits about using a wood bat is a bit more intangible. There is just something that says baseball when you hear the crack of the [wood] bat when walking into the ballpark.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com