Aug. 1—WISHEK, N.D. — The 2025 Wishek-Ashley-Linton American Legion baseball team is making history when they hit the field to take on Cando in the 2025 North Dakota Class B Legion Baseball Tournament.
The Rattlers are in the state tournament for the first time since 2002.
“It means a lot to us. It’s the first time in the co-op’s history and it’s been 23 years since Wishek went,” Rattlers head coach Dave Salwei said. “So it’s a big moment for us and we had to rebuild the program in the last decade. We didn’t even have a legion team or a Babe Ruth team 10 years ago so to rebuild and get to the state tournament means a lot to us.”
In the early 2010s, the baseball program ceased to exist for a few years before Salwei restarted it. Salwei said at that time, those who ran the organization were tired, their kids graduated and interest declined in the sport locally so the town did not field any teams.
“I came back from college and we had kids and after we were home for a couple years, they asked us to take the program over, knowing that we had young kids and knew that we’d get behind the program and try and rekindle it,” Salwei said.
Salwei said he has been running the organization for approximately 13 years. Salwei said Wishek first became a co-op with Linton before Ashley joined five or six years ago. He said the program making the state tournament feels like a culmination of all the hard work that has been put in over the years.
“It’s been a lot of work,” he said. “… It’s been a lot of work to build this co-op but to build the program up took a lot of work too. I started out as the little league coach and I worked from that spot to try to bring some excitement into baseball for these young kids, knowing if I could get them to like it when they were younger, I could probably get them to play as they got older.”
When the Rattlers left for the state tournament, Salwei said the team got a police escort out of town with fire trucks celebrating the squad’s achievement.
The Rattlers and Cando Bearcats play in the second game of the tournament on Friday, Aug. 1, at Park River’s baseball field.
The Rattlers head into the state tournament with a 10-19-1 overall record and have won three of their last four games. Salwei said his team is playing their best baseball right now heading into the final tournament.
“Our fielding has been really good,” said Parker Salwei, Rattlers infielder. “Our fielding and most of our pitchers can hit their spots. We usually don’t have many problems with fielding at all. Our batting is definitely what struggles the most. We seem to get in slumps and we can’t really escape them unless we get in a rhythm.”
This season at the plate, the Rattlers have been led by Salwei, who is hitting .459 with 10 doubles, two triples and 16 RBIs. On the mound, the Rattlers have been led by Berkley Frantz who has a 2-2 record with a 3.98 ERA, 44 strikeouts and a batting average against of .231.
“Personally this is probably one of my best seasons. I’m batting like a .450 something. I was battling .450 in the spring as well so I’m feeling pretty good going into this tournament,” Parker said.
The Rattlers qualified for the state tournament with a 13-4 win over Edgeley Post 146 in the District Legion Tournament on July 23.
Dave said after losing to Edgeley by only two runs late in the regular season, his team realized they could hang with their rivals and it gave them a lot of confidence. He said in practice the team worked on their batting by using golf ball sized wiffle balls and broomsticks and their fielding by using their bare hands. He said the unorthodox practice helped his team to lock back in mentally and it allowed them to play more loose.
Baseball is a family affair for the Salwei family with Dave coaching, his Parker playing, Parker’s mom Sonia running the concession stand in Wishek, and his grandfather helping build and maintain the field. Dave said Sonia is also the organization’s team manager and treasurer. Dave, who travels a lot as a beekeeper, said his dad, Greg, helps coach the team when he is out of town.
“For me, when I look back at high school, some of my best memories were on a baseball field,” Dave said. “My grandpa … played, my dad and all of his brothers they played amateur baseball for many years. My dad played college baseball, I played college baseball and it’s been in my family. It’s just something that was just bred into us I guess. I look back and thought of the good times that I had and I wanted my kids to have memories like that.”
The sport also allows Dave to spend time with his son around the sport they love.
“We don’t watch MLB or anything … my dad and I do sometimes,” Parker said. “But baseball definitely is what makes up most of our summers and since this is my last year it’ll be different. But … I’d say baseball is one of the biggest things in our family, especially in the summer.”
Salwei said getting to watch his son, Parker, play especially means a lot after not getting to watch his older son, Rykan’s, career end.
“I had an older son that played two years ago and he was a really good pitcher. I was actually in the hospital, didn’t get to see his last games,” Dave said. “I had some internal organs that wanted to kill me rather than work for me. I missed the last week of his baseball career which really kind of stings yet. This means a lot to be able to see Parker play out the ending of his career in the state tournament.”