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Playing double duty

Subhead
Five players share time on two summer teams
Lead Summary
By
Jason Berghorst

“It’s better to play three games in one day than no baseball at all.”
That’s how Luverne’s Cade Wenninger summed up playing three baseball games on two teams in one day Friday, July 17, after the high school baseball season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wenninger, incoming senior at Luverne High School, his classmate Ethan Beyer, as well as 2020 LHS graduates Isaiah Bartels, Quinn Buss and Colby Crabtree, are members of both the Luverne 19U and Luverne Redbirds amateur baseball teams.
The Luverne 19U team is the 2020 version of American Legion baseball after sanctioned Legion baseball was canceled due to the pandemic.
Wenninger, Beyer, Bartels and Crabtree competed with the 19U team in two games at a tournament in Garretson July 17 before returning to Redbird Field that night for a game with the amateur squad.
“It was my first triple-header ever,” Wenninger said.
Crabtree was the starting catcher in all three contests.
“Catching three games in one day ended up being easier than I thought it was going to be when I found out that morning I was going to do it,” Crabtree said.
“I started to feel it by the seventh inning or so of the Redbirds game,” he said. “My knees definitely started hollering at me.”
The three games Friday were just a portion of a very busy stretch for the players.
Between the 19U and Redbirds teams, there were eight games over five days, July 16-20.
“I’ve been there, done that when I was younger,” said Brooks Maurer, Redbirds player-manager.
“You have to love baseball to do all that,” he said. “Sometimes they come straight from a 19U game into our dugout ready to play.”
This is the first year on the Redbirds team for all five players.
It’s not unusual for recently graduated seniors to join the Redbirds and for high school players to play on other amateur teams, but this is the first summer in recent memory that high school players have joined the Luverne amateur team.
“There was so much uncertainty with our own schedule and we didn’t know if there would even be a Legion season,” Maurer said.
“So I asked those two guys (Beyer and Wenninger) to join us. They’re mature enough.”
Crabtree said the first-year Redbirds players enjoy the variety that comes with playing on both teams.
“You go from being a senior leader on the 19U team to being a rookie on Redbirds,” he said.
There are some definite differences between playing on the 19U and amateur teams, according to Wenninger.
“The pitching is the biggest difference,” he said.
 “And as an outfielder, I definitely have to adjust,” Wenninger said. “The balls are hit a lot closer to the fence.”
According to Maurer, as the Redbirds begin the playoffs, the rookies are fitting in just fine.
“This is a great opportunity for them,” Maurer said. “It’s nice to have those guys around.”

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