The amateur baseball season officially gets underway today, and the destination hot spot for the area’s 50-plus teams is St. Cloud.

St. Cloud is host to the annual state tournament in August, and who gets there and how has radically changed from 2012.

Even the Sauk Rapids Cyclones, the defending state Class B champion, will have a different look this season.

Jeremiah Piepkorn, the state Class B tournament MVP, is spending his amateur baseball team closer to home in the Brainerd area, where he’ll play for the Nisswa Lightning.

League play begins today in the Victory, Stearns County and Central Valley Leagues, with the Cyclones and the Lakewood League set to begin May 6.

More teams will be advancing to St. Cloud because of a new rule rewarding additional berths to state based on attendance. The Stearns County and Victory Leagues almost always rank among the top in regional attendance each season, with No. 1 generally reserved for Stearns County.

But even officials from that league aren’t crazy about the new rules.

“I don’t like it,” said Spring Hill’s Randy Schoenberg, the Chargers’ co-manager and a member of the Stearns County League. “It screws up our region. It screws up everything.

“Once you get past the first weekend (of regional play), you’re down to your four teams (advancing to state). Who’s excited about that?”

Schoenberg figures regional attendance will go down because the four state entrants already will be determined. All that’s left is seeding order.

“It’s supposed to be a big honor to go to state and to get into regions,” Schoenberg said. “Now, we’ve got three teams going to regions (instead of two). It takes away from qualifying for regions.”

Drafting also has changed. There is no drafting of catchers or pitchers from other teams in your league and region in Class B. In Class C, only pitchers may be taken and they can no longer hit. Schoenberg said advancing more teams to region and state takes away from drafting.

“There’s no one to draw from,” Schoenberg said, noting that three pickes in his league will come from two teams. “It’ll be interesting to see what the state does after this year.”

In Sauk Rapids, the Cyclones will be trying to defend a state title. Most of the team should be back, but Piepkorn won’t.

“We’ll be OK,” said Cyclones catcher John Nemec, who has passed on his general manager duties to field manager Jeff Hille. “We’ve still got a lot of great players.”

On the mound, that includes Hille, Bryce Gapinski, Jason Hoppe, Brett DeGagne and Scott Geiger. Gapinski (St. Thomas), Hoppe (Minnesota State-Mankato) and DeGagne (North Dakota) are all college pitchers.

Sauk Rapids will be part of the ‘B’ Division in the Lakewood League, which is down to 11 teams.

The B Division includes Class B teams Sauk Rapids, the Cold Spring Springers, the Ultimate Sports Snappers, the Granite City Grays, the Cold Spring Springers and the Brainerd Bees. The Ultimate and Granite City are new B teams, moved into the class by the state board over the winter.

“It’s a new challenge,” said Snappers player/manager Ryne Gregory. “I can’t say we were completely caught off guard. I think we saw the writing on the wall.

“We’ll just go out there and play.”

The Snappers have made one key addition, picking up Cory Fitzgerald from St. Cloud Technical & Community College. Joe Statz and Pat Wohlert are also on the roster this season. Key high school pickups from St. Cloud Apollo are Bryan Benson and Ethan Carlson. Losses include Nate Laudenbach, who is going back home to play for Class C St. Augusta, Ben Bengtson and Josh Vorpahl.

The Grays also have made at least one key addition, adding Bryan Schlangen, a catcher from St. Martin who plays at St. Cloud State.

The Lakewood’s Class C Division will be the Sartell Muskies, the Sartell Stone Poneys, Sauk Rapids Jimmy’s, St. Joseph, Clear Lake and Litchfield. Becker folded and Sauk Centre has moved to the Resorters League.

Also leaving the Lakewood is Freeport. The Black Sox joined the Victory League over the winter and are in the West Division with Flensburg, Randall, Royalton, Sobieski and Upsala. That’s a six-team division. The Victory North will remain four teams – Cuyuna, Fort Ripley, Nisswa and St.Mathias. The South and East are unchanged at five teams each.

NOTES

• Minnesota amateur baseball hall of famer Urban Spanier of Spring Hill died last week. He was 86. A long-time state board member, umpire and official, he was long an advocate for Central Minnesota teams during his long tenure on the board.

• A game to watch today is Elrosa at Spring Hill. They are the top two teams in the North Division of the Stearns County League. Spring Hill is likely to start Shawn Schoenberg, a right-hander and long-time ace. Randy Schoenberg said that the Louie Opatz, a key newcomer, might see some mound time today. Opatz, a left-hander, is a 2002 St. Cloud Cathedral and 2006 Augustana graduate who pitched in the Northwoods League for St. Cloud.

Chargers veteran Dave Stalboerger retired.

• A Central Valley League matchup to watch today: Watkins at Kimball. It’s one of the league’s better rivalries and both squads are in transition.

(St. Cloud Times)