Feb. 27—Every available season under head coach Tyler Hebrink,
Advanced to District 13 Championship.
Herbrink hopes his team’s playoff momentum will continue in 2026 after his first two seasons as head coach were canceled due to COVID-19.
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The fifth-year head coach believes his team is capable of achieving that goal.
Ridgewater opens its season Saturday at 8 a.m. in a doubleheader against Owens Community College at Northeast Regional Park in Davenport, Florida.
Herbrink and his Warriors are coming off a 2025 season that ended with a 14-4 record in the Minnesota Collegiate Athletic Conference Central Division and an 18-17 record.
Herbrink’s goals haven’t changed since taking over as head coach.
“We want to win the conference, go to the regional tournament and have a chance to go to the College World Series,” Herbrink said. “That’s what I wholeheartedly envisioned when I got this job.”
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While those goals are big, and for the deep postseason development Herbrink seeks, it has to start with Ridgewater’s returners on the mound.
Namely Joe Libble.
Lieble was named to the MCAC Central Division first team as a freshman.
The left-hander from Wabasso went 5-2 with a team-high 3.67 ERA in four complete games and struck out a team-high 47 in 49 innings.
Also returning as starting pitchers are sophomores Dominic Rose and Brennan Fictum, who play for NCAA Division II Southwest Minnesota State University.
Ross, a right-hander from Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop, is 5-3, including three complete games, with a 5.28 ERA and 30 strikeouts in 44.1 innings.
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Ficktum, a right-hander from Wausausee, Wis., went 3-2 in 35.1 innings.
“Joe, Dom and Brennan were our weekend starters last year as freshmen,” Herbrink said of three of his four captains. “We’re going to be relying on them to do the same thing this year.”
Nolan Eischens, who will miss all of the 2025 season with a back injury, will provide a major boost to Ridgewater’s batting order and pitching rotation.
A sophomore versatile player, Eisens was named to the District XIII All-Conference First Team and MCAC All-Conference Team as a freshman infielder in 2024.
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Eisens, from New Prague, batted .471 during his freshman season with 48 hits, including nine doubles and two homers, 35 runs and 33 RBIs. He also posted a 2-2 record in 13.2 innings on the mound.
“Offensively, Nolan is more advanced than anyone else in the league,” Herbrink said. “He’s also going to pitch, be good on the mound and play catcher. He’s going to do a lot of different things for us.”
Elliott Domagala, Kyle Nelson and Blake Morris are key returners for the Warriors, who start the game without six players who earned All-MCAC Central Division honors last season.
Domagala, an outfielder/right-handed pitcher from Luverne, batted .244 with 22 hits, 21 runs and 19 RBIs in 90 at-bats as a freshman. He is expected to play this season.
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Nelson, a center infielder/right-handed pitcher from Hutchinson, batted .352 with 25 hits, 25 runs and 22 RBIs in 71 at-bats. He was an infielder on the MCAC Central Division third team last season.
Morris, the No. 4 captain and third baseman from Darcel Cocato, had 81 at-bats as a rookie, 22 RBIs, 20 hits, 18 runs, and a batting average of .247.
“Blake came on for us in the second half of last season,” Herbrink said. “I think he’s going to have a tremendous year for us this spring.”
Herbrink is excited about the arrivals of left-handed pitcher Dylan Kluis from Central Murray County and outfielder Davis Patzer from Lac qui Parle Valley, part of a large group of freshmen, many of whom are from the Midwest Tribune area.
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Local freshmen include Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg’s Travis Engelke, Daniel Overcash and Evan Zimmer, MACCRAY’s Jase Dirksen and Wyatt Swenson and Willmar’s Gavin Banks and Connor Smith.
Other sophomore athletes on the roster include KMS’s Luke Jeseritz, Paynesville’s Brandon Carlson and Yellow Medicine East’s Drew Almich.