Region 8B baseball: Dassel-Cokato and Maple Lake open tonight

Maple Lake and St. Michael finished third and fourth, respectively, at the 2008 Class B State Tournament in Shakopee and Chaska.

Fast forward a year and the Lakers and Saints are the fifth and sixth seeds in the Region 8B playoffs.

Any questions on how tough the region is are now answered.

Veterans Memorial Field will be host to the two-week, double-elimination tournament, which begins tonight with fourth seed Dassel-Cokato against fifth seed Maple Lake.

The Saints swept the season series with a 3-1 home win June 17 and a 11-10 road victory June 28. Ben Jungers took the loss in both games for the Lakers, who are 14-15 overall.

Maple Lake is led by veteran Chad Raiche, who finished second in the Central Division with a .437 average with 31 hits and 26 runs.

Newcomers Bart Marsnik (.408) and Graham Brown (.308) have offset the losses of middle of the order mainstays Keith Jerpseth, Todd Fuller and Mick Johnson, who all departed from the Lakers after the 2008 season.

D-C is 15-17 overall after losing to the Moorhead Brewers 5-0 Saturday.

The Saints are led by Dan Birkholz and Jordan Danielson on the mound, while Brent Opsahl (.385), Dan Birkholz (.309), Cole Flick (.305) and Luke Peterson (.302) are all hitting above .300.

Game time is 7:30 p.m.