Sheyenne Baseball looking for third consecutive state title this season

WEST FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - Trey Stocker, a junior center fielder for the West Fargo Sheyenne Mustangs, puts it best: the team is here to stay present and win.

“Just staying present, coming here to work every single day, and just not thinking about the future or the past, just every single day getting better and just waiting for that first game,” the Mustang center fielder said.

Winning is nothing new for the blue and orange: they’re back-to-back NDHSAA Class A state champions, and despite a slower-than-normal start to the season, their plans on a three-peat aren’t deterred.

“People from other schools, ya know, they may think we may not be as good this year, or whatever, because we lost probably our best pitcher,” senior Mustang pitcher and shortstop Caleb Duerr said. “And you know, that’s always tough. But I think everyone in this room or on this team thinks we got a good chance to win it.”

Caleb isn’t exaggerating about the loss: the Mustangs have lost nine seniors in the past two title-winning seasons each, so they’re always looking to reload with the new crop of seniors, and fast.

“I think the first is just not listening to the outside noise, people have a lot of expectations for your team, and I think just getting past those and playing the game you play, it’ll work out in the end,” Stocker said.

“They just gotta be leaders, ya know, we’re always looking for leaders, we’re always looking to rebuild every year,” head coach Ryan Bodell said. “We’ve told them, it’s gonna come fast and furious once we get outside and start playing, so we gotta be ready, we only got 11 conference games, so we gotta be ready to play every single time we step on the field. Obviously we have a target on our back, two-time state champ.”

Sheyenne begins another season of title defense with a trip south to Sioux Falls in the Border Battle tournament, starting what Coach Bodell says will be his final year at the helm.

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