Blues prep for playoffs

MENOMINEE — The Marquette Blues are in Menominee today for the Zone 5 Class A playoffs.

It’s a six team, double elimination format and the top three teams will advance to the state tournament next week down in Escanaba. But after a very successful season, the team’s confidence is at an all-time high.

“It’s been a good success and like I said, hopefully this brings out the best of the players. Last year, we ended up on a sour note in the states, losing by one run in both games and hopefully we can come back from that. We’ve played real good, successful ball against the teams we’re going to face in the U.P. but obviously, they’re going to all gun for us so hopefully we can come out with our best game,” Swajanen said.

“All the guys played pretty well. We’ve been playing solid baseball for most of the season. We’ve had our ups and downs but right now, we’re just really looking forward to going out and playing the best baseball we can this weekend,” said Larson.

Now you don’t get this far without some tough love and Coach Swajanen always gets on his players, whether they’re leading or trailing.

“That’s just the way I coach. If they make a mistake right then, you got to correct it right then. You don’t want to wait until later on then they might forget about it. And so I get on them right then as you’ve obviously watched throughout games and I’ll correct it right then, same with practice right here,” said Swajanen.