20-year-old Loos swinging a big bat for Valley Rats

The Valley Rats amateur baseball team dropped to 3-3 on the season after an 11-8 loss to the defending Class A Champion Sioux Falls Flying Squirrels on June 27 at Augustana University.

The loss was the Rats’ third in four games, but manager Josh Mulder remains full of confidence as Valley hits the midway point of the regular season.

“We’re still hitting the ball, still scoring runs,” Mulder said. “They’re the defending champs and we scored eight times on them. I still think we’re going to be OK.”

The Rats actually out-hit Sioux Falls 14-12. Although catcher Ben Loos didn’t homer against the Squirrels, the second-year player for Valley has been crushing the ball this year.

Over a three-game stretch against Brookings, Baltic and Renner, Loos homered four times.

It’s an added offensive punch for the Rats that’s surprised almost everyone on the Valley bench, including Loos.

“It’s kind of surprising to me to see how often it’s happening,” the 20-year old from Harrisburg said. “I wasn’t that much of a power hitter, even in high school. I was more of a contact guy, a guy who could get on base. This has been kind of a nice surprise.”

For Mulder, the extra bounce off the bat from Loos has filled a gap that he was worried about at the beginning of the season with the injury to Jaxon Haase, a power hitter who had 10 home runs for Southwest Minnesota State this spring.

Loos played sparingly last year for the Rats after dealing with his own injuries. 

“When we had him for a few games last year, he didn’t hit the ball like that,” Mulder said. “I wasn’t expecting it this year. It’s been a good surprise.”

Loos plays collegiately at Dakota State University and attributes his sudden power to the amount of time he’s been spending in the DSU weight room in Madison.

“My coach has been working a lot with me to make contact so I can start putting more balls in play,” he said. “The power is coming.”

He’ll be back at DSU this fall to continue his collegiate baseball career and will continue to work towards his degree in Computer Information Systems. He’s working this summer at Sullivan’s Wholesale in Sioux Falls  –a home decor company that ships products nationally.

Despite the return to Madison on the horizon and the labor-intensive work at Sullivan’s this summer, Loos will be available to play for the Rats in the state tournament scheduled for Aug. 2-13 in Mitchell.

It’s a problem for several amateur teams who field college players on its roster. Players can compete all regular season, but then peel off for campus in August, causing them to miss the state tournament.

“Not me,” Loos said. “I don’t have to go back to school until late August. We’ll be ready for the state tournament."