Class Act: Hayfield baseball team was ready to roll - Austin Daily Herald

The group includes five players who are expected to play college baseball and it is loaded with as much character as there is talent. When head coach Kasey Krekling heard that he wouldn’t be able to compete with his Vikings this spring, his first thought went to Legion, then his second thought went to amateur baseball, where Krekling plays a big role for the Dodge County Diamondbacks. Hayfield put together its best season in school history last year when the Vikings finished 24-3 overall and took fifth place in its first ever appearance in the Minnesota Class A State Tournament. The Vikings played fearlessly throughout the spring as they trailed in three of their four Section 1A Tournament games and they trailed Randolph 5-0 in the first inning of the fifth place game of the state tournament before bouncing back to get the win. Hayfield’s senior class includes Kolby Tapp, James Watson, Jake Risius, Luke Dudycha, Brady Nelson, Patrick Towey and Carter Kyllo. Krekling also considers his senior student managers Taylor Burt and Madi Lubert to be a big part of the program. Krekling said he saw the current seniors separate themselves from previous classes when they started off 1-4 overall in 2018 and rallied to 13 of their next 15 games, before going 0-2 in the postseason. Especially, when so much was left unfinished after the spring sports season was cancelled due to COVID-19 last week. “(Assistant coach) Tom Dublin and I always talk about working hard and how it will pay off in the long run,” Krekling said. There’s a lot of people in different sports this year who have worked hard and it hasn’t paid off.”