St. Anthony baseball team ready for a repeat

St. Anthony senior Chris Peterson's no-hitter against Jordan a couple of weeks ago could be a good omen for the Huskies. The last time Peterson threw a no-hitter for the Huskies, as a sophomore in 2006, they won the state Class 2A championship.

Peterson, left fielder Calvin Walker and center fielder Steve Grewe were all starters as sophomores for that state title team. The three players are joined by 12 other seniors, two juniors and no sophomores on the St. Anthony varsity this season.

"It's not often that you have this many senior players at a high school this small," said Huskies coach Troy Urdahl, referring to the fact that St. Anthony is one of the smallest public high schools in the Twin Cities area, with only 620 students in grades 9-12. "Going into the 2006 season, we had only two returning starters. We knew we had a good team, but we didn't know how good. We took off early in the year and never let up."

The 2008 Huskies entered the week 9-1 overall and 4-0 in the Tri-Metro Conference. And while they are all having successful seasons individually, each of the three players who started as sophomores emphasized the role that togetherness and familiarity have played in their team's success.

"Twelve or 13 of us have been playing baseball together since fifth grade," Walker said. "And a lot of us play multiple sports. We get to see each other a lot and know each other well."

Added Grewe: "We all care about each other a lot. We don't get mad at each other for making mistakes."

But they obviously try to limit mistakes.

"One of our mantras this year," said Urdahl, "which we stole from Ron Gardenhire, is that a lot of times the other team won't win the game, but your team will lose the game. We don't want to give away any wins. We focus on controlling mental errors more than physical."

The Huskies' confidence and experience showed in their victory over St. Croix Lutheran last Wednesday. Trailing 4-1 late, the Huskies scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to come away with a 5-4 victory.

The Huskies will collide with a part of their past next Wednesday, when they play their final regular-season game against conference and section opponent Minnehaha Academy. Mark Halstengard, another key sophomore player on St. Anthony's championship team in 2006, transferred to Minnehaha his junior year and was a second team All-Metro pitcher last season.

But with several big games coming up in the next few days, the Huskies aren't even thinking ahead to the Minnehaha Academy game.

"If we're not prepared for this week, that game would never even matter," Urdahl said. "A lot could change about who's fighting for top spot in conference over the next week and a half."

That said, St. Anthony has a group of seniors determined to replicate the accomplishment of two years ago.

"We've won a lot of games over the years and this is the climax of our careers together," Peterson said. "If we keep playing well and stay healthy, we have a good shot for state again."

Chuck Fitzer is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Star Tribune.