Defending Metro East Conference champion Tartan opens league play this week with three doubleheaders, the last of which comes against a St. Thomas Academy program that won the Class 3A consolation title a year ago.
The Cadets scored 5.8 runs per game to get to Target Field last year, and Sam Applebaum (.409 batting average) and Patrick Walsh (.352) return as the main cogs of a lineup looking to bomb the ball for St. Thomas Academy (0-1, 0-0) again.
They will face a Tartan (0-1, 0-0) pitching staff that returns senior Andrew Maslowski, junior Andrew Gustafson and sophomore Connor Huffman, part of crew that surrendered just 2.2 runs per game during the 2017 regular season.
Maslowski, a Sioux Falls commit, and Gustafson have already seen early action, with each tossing five innings in a 10-inning, 2-1 loss to Woodbury on April 20.
-- Second game to follow.