2 Huskies With Same Name Lead St. Cloud State To D-II Regional
ST. CLOUD, Minn. (WCCO) -- This weekend, St Cloud State hosts a Division II regional baseball tournament and they are expected to win.
The Huskies are ranked No. 1 in the country, which is no small feat for a team from the north. They feature two players and one name that helped get them there. Mike Max paid a visit to campus on Tuesday.
The St Cloud State baseball team knows success: It comes in the form of a 51-3 record.
"I give our guys a lot of credit. To be 51-3, that's not an easy thing to do. And you do it with good players," coach Pat Dolan said. "Coaches get way too much of the credit in a lot of sports, but baseball especially. But we've got a great group of guys, and they've just been clicking on all cylinders."
And they've got a couple of names on the team that sound familiar. At least they should, because they've got a couple of the same names: Zach Hoffman and Zak Hoffman.
Thats right, the third baseman and the first baseman share the same goals, the same dreams and the same name.
"I think we've got it figured out now especially with our coaches. They've got different nicknames for us," Zach Hoffman said. "They call me 'Butch' I guess, they all him 'Squatch,' so it works out."
And they both share another quality: They can hit the baseball.
"We've got a lot of leadership on our team and our lineup is stacked," Zak Hoffman said. "I mean everyone in our lineup was a No. 3 or No. 4 hitter in high school. We just hit the ball around and do our thing."
Zak Hoffman has 15 home runs this season. It's easy to figure out who they are when they are at bat, but it's a little different in the field.
"It's really confusing on our team when we're out in the field and our coach says something. We're both looking in the dugout and it's just fun," Zak Hoffman said.
A No. 1 national ranking is great, but this weekend at home they want to take another step towards a No. 1 ranking at season's end.
"I think we still have one goal and that's still to make the World Series and that's something we haven't done yet," Zach Hoffman said.
The Huskies faces Henderson State University at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Central Regional at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud.
