Madison Broncos must prepare to play full nine innings

Posted on Friday, May 7, 2010

By ARIY-EL BOYNTON, Staff Reporter

The consensus between Greg Biagi and Trent Miller, newly appointed Madison Broncos amateur baseball co-coaches, is that the 2010 Broncos need to play nine innings and finish games that they have a chance to win.

"We gave games away in the past few years because we lost focus or let a costly error snowball," said Miller, who along with Biagi replaced Jim Rhodes as manager.

The 15 Broncos listed on the roster will take on Class B state champion and Corn Belt regular season champion Canova Gang on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Canova.

"It's a long summer, and I really think we can be competitive in every game we play," said Biagi, who is listed as a pitcher and a middle infielder. "We need to stay away from the big inning and get quality starts."

Pitchers this year who can supply the quality starts are Chris Brozik, Ray Wagner, Dusty Skluzacek, Justin Saufley and last year's ace, Mitch McNary. Current Dakota State University pitchers Nick Bird and Ryan Steffensen are also on the roster.

"This season, especially early on, we need to keep our pitch count low, and we need to keep our innings low," said Miller.

The Broncos are scheduled to play at Flynn Field 12 times this year. They have 25 regular season games and will play the Dist. 4B tournament, which is the Corn Belt League, in Humboldt.

"We want to finish on top of our league or higher than we did last year," said Miller.

The Broncos finished sixth in the CBL last season with a 12-10 record. In the conference tournament, Madison placed fourth and advanced to the State B amateur baseball tournament in Mitchell.

The Broncos were one-and-done at the state tournament and look for a better showing in this year's state tournament in Sioux Falls on Aug. 4-15.

"If we can get to state and win our first game, anything can happen," said Miller.

Miller is looking forward to seeing the bats of Matt Burpee and Justin Saufley, new members of the team.

Rounding out this year's roster are Justin Jaspers, Trevor Johnson, Dusty Skluzacek, Jay Mendel and Monte Wire.

The Broncos will have their first home game on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. against the Freeman Blacksox.

©Madison Daily Leader 2010