Laurel athletes played big roles for area baseball teams
LAUREL — Although Laurel does not field a Legion baseball team, four area athletes continued their respective baseball careers in Hartington and Pender.
Dylan Taylor, Dan Puppe and Koby Detlefsen play for the Hartington Post 4 Junior and Senior American Legion baseball teams and Tyler Olson competes for Post 55 in Pender and as of this writing, all four are in Area Legion championship games in Crofton and Pender.
Taylor, Puppe and Detlefsen are key ingredients to Hartington’s post season hopes and Detlefsen already made a difference in Post 4’s Junior Legion state runnerup performance in the Class C State Junior American Legion Tournament which was held July 20-24 at Felber Park in Hartington.
“State was a lot of fun, but now we are trying to do it all over again with the Seniors,” Detlefsen said. “I feel like our bats are coming alive right now.”
The trio from the south couldn’t be any happier with their decisions to play in Hartington.
“These are a bunch of great guys,” Taylor said. “We’re not playing for our hometown, but we are playing for a town that has accepted us and welcomed us.”
Puppe, who came to Hartington with his older brother Deagan from the beginning of his Legion baseball career, agreed with his teammate.
“I wasn’t real sure in the beginning, but this has been a lot of fun,” he said. “I get along with all of these guys, I don’t even feel like an outsider anymore, I feel like this is where I belong for baseball. It has made me a better baseball player and I’m very thankful to have this opportunity to keep playing.”
The conversation quickly changed from looking back to what lies ahead.
“We need to keep our bats going,” Puppe said. “We didn’t hit the ball at all the last time we played them (Crofton/Wynot), I think we woke up tonight and started hitting the ball.”
“We’re not going to lose to Crofton again,” Taylor said. “We just need to stay focused and play our game, if we do that I think we’ll be okay.”
All three bat towards the top of the line up and all three have pitched for either the Post 4 Juniors or Seniors.
Detlefsen played first for the Hartington Juniors and is a regular in the Seniors’ line up, Puppe catches and Taylor can play all over the field for coach Don Whitmire and his Hartington teammates.
Olson, who lives in Concord, travels south to Pender for his Legion baseball team.
He is on the Post 55 Senior Legion team and got the win on the mound July 29 to send his team to the Area 2 finals, pacing Pender to an 11-4 win over Wakefield.
Olson usually plays shortstop when he’s not on the mound.