LAKE NORDEN – They have been here before, just on different level.

The current players on the Lake Norden-Badger team will be looking to duplicate their Junior Legion state baseball championship when they compete in this weekend’s State B American Legion Baseball Tournament in Salem Friday through Tuesday.

There is no denying that the members who make the squad are a very decorated group. They include players from DeSmet, which won multiple State B basketball championships, Hamlin, which won the State A basketball title this past year, as well as Castlewood, which also competed in multiple state basketball tourneys the past few seasons.

“You look at this group of kids, and they’ve played a lot of different sports and they’ve been in a lot of situations,” said Lake Norden-Badger coach Brad Noem. “Baseball is so different. In basketball you can try to get the ball to your best player every time. In football you can get the ball to your running back and block for him. In baseball it doesn’t work that way. Baseball, you might not get your best hitter up for another two innings; your best pitcher might be done pitching because he ran out of pitches. It’s just whole different deal, but every one of these kids in our lineup, we have confidence in them and they have confidence in themselves.”

Noem said his players have a good mindset when it comes to baseball.

“The thing about it is they’re not afraid to fail. With baseball you’re going to fail a lot,” Noem said. “You’re going to fail throughout the game, but don’t let it bother you and the kids really respond to that, and they have a lot of confidence when they go up to the plate or go on the field.”

It’s no coincidence that Noem trusts his players and takes a bit of a hands-off approach to coaching, and even preparing for upcoming opponents.

“I’ve coached a long time, 31 years of baseball and I coached basketball for 25 years. …. I just worry about what we do,” Noem said. “I don’t do a lot of scouting. I trust my kids to go do their jobs.”

The team is led by familiar names like Hamlin athletes Cristhian Rodriguez (MVP of the Junior Legion tourney two years ago), Dawson Noem and Turner Stevenson (who hit a walk-off home run to secure this year’s state tourney berth), DeSmet standouts George Jensen and Kadyn Fast (key starters of state basketball championship teams), and Castlewood’s Lane Tvedt (a multi-sport standout for the Warriors).

“Every one of these kids was basically on the Junior Legion state championship team two years ago,” Noem said.

Lake Norden-Badger takes on Elk Point-Jefferson in the opening game of the tourney at 10 a.m. on Friday.

Noem said defending state champion Dell Rapids has to be the favorite heading into the double-elimination tournament, especially with its track record and rich history in the sport.

“Dell Rapids is as big of a baseball town as there is in the state of South Dakota,” Noem said.

Quality pitching has been a trademark of the Lake-Norden squad this season and will be counted on to help the team make a strong run in the state tourney, according to Noem.

“This is probably the deepest pitching staff I’ve had as far as the number of arms we’ve had. Obviously, they still have to go out and you have to have things go your way,” Noem said. “For us to be successful our pitchers got to go out and continued to do what they’ve been doing …. and not trying to strike guys out, but trusting your defense. The defense is going to make plays.”

Of course timely hitting is always a key element of baseball, and Lake Norden-Badger has had its share of it lately as it heads into the state tournament.

“We’ve been blessed with some clutching hitting in the last month and half. Holy cow, we’ve had a lot of two-out rallies in close games and we’ve gone through that,” Noem said. “I like where we’re at mentally. It’s not going to take anything special for us. We’re just going to go out and play, and do the little things, and hopefully that’s enough to have us make a run this weekend.”