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For the Lyle-Pacelli baseball team, their success in recent years has been driven by two extremely effective pitchers with different personalities.

Isaac Nelsen and Hunter VaDeer are both incredibly hard to hit and they are both better when the game is on the line. However, Nelsen is much more likely to crack a joke to loosen the mood, while VaDeer is much more likely to be completely locked into the moment.

VaDeer is all-in with baseball as he has played the sport as much as possible and has a fast ball that surpasses 90 miles per hour. He’s caught the eye of many baseball fans in Southeast Minnesota and he’s already committed to Division I Creighton University.

Nelsen hasn’t drawn the college interest of VaDeer and his fast ball is not comparable, but he has been equally important for the Athletics, who took second in state last year and are hoping to win their first state title at the Class A tournament next week.

Nelsen hasn’t spent his winters playing baseball in the twin cities like VaDeer, but he did play basketball for LP and he was also involved in the Mower County CEO program.

Both players have found their own path to success and they’ve given L-P a dynamic pitching duo that most Class A coaches could only dream about. 

With Nelsen being a senior and VaDeer a junior, this will be the last dance for L-P’s ace hurlers together and it will be interesting to see how the story ends.

No matter what happens, you’ll see Nelsen smiling and you’ll see VaDeer locked in with an intense level of focus.