By Jon Akre

605 Sports

The Blue Teal will be part of the Cornbelt League, one of South Dakota’s most prestigious and competitive leagues featuring teams like the Dell Rapids Mudcats, Canova Gang, and even the Flandreau Cardinals. 

Geographically, you could’ve made a case for the startup to be part of the Eastern Dakota League, with teams like the Volga Cormorants and Elkton Snappers, but the Blue Teal were eager for the challenge. 

“We always wanted to get into the Cornbelt, we’ve grown up watching Cardinal baseball and we know how competitive it is,” Peters said. “That’s ultimately why we wanted to be in the Cornbelt, we get to play our hometown Flandreau Cardinals a couple times a year and be in probably the most competitive league in the state.” 

Peters said he’s excited to kindle a new amateur baseball rivalry right in the town of Flandreau. Despite the first Flandreau showdown being a month away, the trash talk has already begun. 

“I know a lot of guys are pumped, there’s obviously a lot of trash talk between the two teams, but in a fun competitive way,” Peters said. “People are looking forward to it. We even have Sam Gassman on our team and his older brother plays for the Cardinals. So, we’re going to have a bit of a brother matchup there.” 

The team consists of 14 players, ranging from the ages of 19-24, making them one of the youngest teams in amateur baseball.  

Despite being a younger team, Peters says it’s been an awesome experience for the team and has earned plenty of support from the community. 

“We’re a little bit younger but to get these guys starting to get these guys playing in the amateur league right now is a big deal,” Peters said. “The community was super supportive, and we got a lot of help from businesses and other families that were willing to donate and just do anything they can to get things running.” 

Five of the 14 Blue Teal players currently play college sports, four of whom play college baseball for Dakota Wesleyan University. 

Flandreau native Tanner Christenson, Sioux Falls natives Tristin Van Wassenhove and Mason Riley, as well as Alaska native Brenden Gregory, are all on the Tigers baseball team. Christenson, Van Wassenhove, and Riley just finished their freshmen seasons, while Gregory finished his sophomore campaign. 

On top of the four college baseball players is Tash Lunday, who just finished up an excellent sophomore season on the basketball court for the Mount Marty Lancers, averaging 13.1 points and six rebounds per game this past season. 

Among Wassenhove, Riley, and Gregory, the Blue Teal decided to add more pitching depth for their final release spot, adding Sioux Falls Washington graduate Gage Sharping to the mix. 

When coming up with the team’s name and color scheme, it took some time before things started to come together, even taking inspiration from other higher levels of baseball. 

“We had a name in mind right away, but we really couldn’t come up with good colors, and a good logo to fit it all, so we just looked at some minor league teams just to get some ideas flowing,” Peters said. “We were looking at some logos online and were like ‘Dude, this bird looks really cool.’ So, we kind of played around with it, made something of our own, and came up with the Blue Teal duck.” 

After figuring out a name, logo, and roster, the Flandreau Blue Teal made their debut against the Lennox/Chancellor/Worthing Dirt Devils last Sunday, collecting 13 hits in the 7-6 comeback victory. 

Despite the win, Peters said the nerves in the dugout of their first amateur game in history were nothing short of high. 

“That first inning we made a couple of dumb plays that should’ve been outs, but you could just tell the nerves were flowing, especially everyone’s first couple at-bats you could tell we were tense,” Peters said. “Toward the middle of the game, we said ‘This is baseball, we’ve all played it, let’s just go out and have fun.’ ” 

But the early season jitters didn’t last long, earning a 16-3 mercy rule win over the Hartford-Humboldt Wood Ducks on May 16, adding another 16 hits including four doubles and two triples. 

Of course, the amateur season is long, and baseball in May isn’t as important as it is in July and August, but the Flandreau Blue Teal may be sending an early message of what’s to come from them this season. 

“We’ve got a lot of competitive guys; our manager Mark Hoffman is super competitive as well,” Peters said. “We’ve said we don’t want to have too high of expectations, but I said, ‘We’re going to be one of the seven teams to make the state tournament, no matter how ugly it’s going to be,’ and ultimately, our goal is to make it to the state tournament and make a name for ourselves in this league.”