Century grad Logan Milene earns playing time for Eastern Michigan baseball team
Jun. 5—ROCHESTER — Century graduate Logan Milene saw extended playing time in his first season of Division I baseball at Eastern Michigan University.
Milene played two years of junior college ball at North Iowa Area Community College before transferring to Eastern Michigan. Milene played in 25 of the team's 53 games and he made 14 starts.
The left-handed hitter batted .240 with a .691 OPS. Milene was 12-for-50 at the plate with four doubles, four RBIs and five runs scored.
Milene will play amateur baseball with the Rochester Royals this spring and summer. He was used as a utility player during his junior season and he helped Eastern Michigan post a 27-26 record, including 12-18 in MAC play.
The Eagles made a big change following the season, however, as it was announced that head coach Eric Roof will not be retained for the 2024 season. Roof posted a record of 104-180-1 in five seasons at Eastern Michigan. He is the son of former Major League player Gene Roof, who appeared in 105 games with the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos in the early 1980s.
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Hayfield's Easton Fritcher is playing with the Mankato MoonDogs of the Northwoods League this summer after seeing limited action as a true freshman for the University of Minnesota baseball team.
The left-handed hitting Fritcher was on the MoonDogs' roster for part of the 2022 season after he graduated from Hayfield High School. He appeared in 13 games and batted .327 (17-for-52) with four RBIs and eight runs scored.
This year at Minnesota, Fritcher played in 10 games as an outfielder and he made two starts. He hit .200 (2-for-10) with two RBIs and two runs scored. The Gophers finished the season 18-34.
In the first three games of the 2023 season for the MoonDogs, Fritcher was batting .375 (3-for-8) with a double, an RBI, two runs scored and he had already drawn six walks.
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Rochester's Nolan Jurgenson helped Bethel University reach an NCAA Division III Regional baseball title game before falling to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Jurgenson, a Lourdes grad, was part of a win against UW-La Crosse to force a one-game showdown for the region title. Jurgenson was on base in the ninth inning, with Bethel down 3-2, when Andrew Cardenas hit a dramatic two-run pinch-hit home run to win the game in just his eighth at-bat of the season.
But Bethel ran out of pitching in the winner-take-all game as La Crosse rolled to a 16-3 victory to earn a Division III World Series berth.
Jurgenson, a sophomore middle infielder, played in 39 of the team's 44 games and he made 32 starts. He batted .280 (28-for-100) with three doubles, two home runs, 17 RBIs and 24 runs scored. He finished with a .791 OPS.
He helped Bethel finish the season with a 32-12 record. Like Milene, Jurgenson is playing with the Rochester Royals during the 2023 season.
—Junior Sam Linderbaum of St. Charles was also a member of the Bethel baseball team. The left-handed pitcher did not appear in a varsity game during the 2023 season.
Guy N. Limbeck is a sports writer for the Post Bulletin. His Local Notebook appears each Tuesday. He can be reached at
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