Esko baseball earns first state berth in Coach Haugen’s 17 years

The more than two decade wait is finally over for the Esko baseball team as after topping Mora 16-6 in 5 innings in the 7AA championship Thursday, Esko earned their first state tournament berth since 2000.

A long but fulfilling journey for seventeen-year head coach Ben Haugen.

“I think about all the other assistant coaches have had and all the great players and all the great teams. I saw a lot of alumni in the stands here today, so it just reminds me of, you know, you know, everybody’s been a part of this to to get to this point. So I think we’ve got the team that can win it all,” stated head coach Haugen.

“I knew it was going to happen eventually. I’m just so happy that it happened when I was here. This is an awesome team, just a great group of guys to be with, and we’re not done,” added senior pitcher Cale Haugen.

Cale Haugen helped Esko improve dramatically from a year ago, recording 11 more wins and a 23-1 record

The State tournaments begins this coming Tuesday, June 13th