When it comes to great baseball, Southwest Minnesota takes a back seat to no one.Since I moved to this corner of the state from west central Minnesota in 1986, I’ve always been impressed with the way area teams perform on the field.Teams from the southern part of the state seem to play a higher level of ball than other areas of the state, and I’m armed with some information that supports my assumption.Since 2001, members of the Southwest Conference have placed first or second in the Minnesota State Class AA Tournament in three of the past five seasons.Luverne started the run by placing second in 2001, a year after Jackson County Central placed third at the event.JCC broke through and won the Class AA championship in 2004, and Pipestone went 2-1 and placed second at last week’s tournament in St. Cloud.Smaller schools from the area have been equally competitive in recent years.Adrian advanced to the Class A tournament in three of the last four years, and they captured their second consolation title (the first came in 2002) at the event on Friday.Murray County Central, a team that competes against Adrian in the Red Rock Conference, won the Class A consolation title in 2001.That means AHS and MCC have won three of the last five consolation titles in Class A competition.The results of my findings are easy to understand — you can find some of the state’s best baseball teams in less than a one-hour drive from Luverne’s city limits.Only one question remains: Why is southwest Minnesota a baseball hotbed?For the answer to that question, I solicited information from the only two baseball experts I know, Luverne head coach Mike Wenninger and AHS mentor Kevin Nowotny.Both had similar responses to my question."It seems like the teams from the south do the little things well," Wenninger said."They hit the ball, they field the ball and they always have a couple of pitchers who can throw the ball well."Nowotny said there are a number of quality teams right in this area, and that makes for a competitive field."Right now the strength of our schedule is helping us," the AHS coach said."There are a lot of good teams down here. We all have to play each other, and that makes us better."Wenninger and Nowotny also supported one of the reasons I thought made baseball great in this part of the state. For the most part, weather in this part of the state is more conducive for the sport in the spring."Weather does influence things," Wenninger offered."We didn’t have a great spring this year. We’re practicing inside, then we were outside, then we were back inside again earlier this year. I think the northern teams probably have to deal with that more than we do," he said.So, if the citizens from the northern part of the state want to be considered the hardiest of Minnesotans because they have to deal with colder temperatures and have to wait longer for the snow to melt, let them have that distinction.I’d rather live here, where the landscape greens up in early April, which is right at about the same time they start playing a better brand of high school baseball.