Moorhead Blues ready to begin new season, give seniors one last chance to play together

The Blues begin their season on Friday after Minnesota cleared teams to restart outdoor youth sports.

MOORHEAD, Minn — There was nothing but good feelings in the air at Matson field on Friday afternoon.

The Moorhead blues held hitting practice just a couple of hours before the team’s long awaited start to the season.

“Guys are excited,” said head coach, Bryant Bergeson. “We have been waiting for this moment since probably the middle of March, so it has been a long time coming and we are just excited to get going and play some baseball.”

After the cancellation of both the high school baseball season and the Minnesota Legion season because of COVID-19, Blues players were itching to find a way to get back on the field for the summer.

“There was a lot of hope that something would get done. A lot of these guys kept messaging me, ‘What’s going to happen?’ ‘Are we going to get something going?'” said Bergeson. “I just kept telling them be patient. Something very likely will get done. Then when they finally got the word that we are good to go, then it was kind of pure joy.”

Moorhead will play this summer in the Babe Ruth League.

They have their schedule set and already have had practice underway, but now with the okay from the Minnesota Department of Health to resume outdoor sports, competition can finally begin.

They’ll have a little catching up to do with some of their opponents, as many of the teams the blues play are from North Dakota, where teams were able to begin their seasons at the start of June.

Now that the waiting has finally come to an end, the guys are just grateful they have a season to play.

There are ten players on the team who graduated high school this year. The Blues season won’t be exactly the same as playing in a Moorhead high School uniform, but it is a chance to get some closure.

While they want to win as much as they can, what really matters to them about these next couple of months is the getting the opportunity to close things out with some of their closest friends.

“It means a lot. We have all been playing together for a long time and just getting one more season, even if it is a shortened season, it means a lot to play some games with this group again,” said senior Hayden Netland.

“As a group together, this is the last time. We are going to try and savor it. Try to win as many games as we can,” added senior Chrisanto D’Agostino.

“It is just great to get back out here with the guys one more time,” said senior Wyatt Gunkel. “We have been playing a long time together and it is just good to be with these guys one last time and hopefully we can do something special with a Moorhead jersey on.”