GRAND FORKS, N.D.-- University of North Dakota head baseball coach Jeff Dodson announced the signing of a pair of lefties to National Letters of Intent and a middle infielder set to join as a walk-on in his early signing class. Ellery Bresnahan, Cooper Maas and Zach Muckenhirn will enroll and join UND in the fall of 2013.
"It's a very small recruiting class because we're only losing two scholarship players," Dodson noted. "That's good for us because we return a lot of experience. We identified two immediate needs-- middle infield depth and on the mound. We got two guys that are very good on the mound from the left side and also we feel like Cooper will add some depth for us in the infield."
Bresnahan, a 5-foot-10 southpaw, hails from Casselton, N.D. He helped lead his Casselton Post 15 American Legion team to back-to-back Class B State Legion championships. He also helped lead the Central Cass basketball team to last year's Class B State Tournament as their point guard. Bresnahan is the great nephew of former North Dakota Governor George Sinner.
"I'm really excited to be able to play for my home state," Bresnahan said. "I really enjoyed the coaches and really liked the campus."
Maas, who's labeled as a defensive standout by his coaches, will walk-on at UND. The six-footer from Burnsville, Minn. plays both middle infield positions and is versatile at other positions as well. Maas is looking forward to majoring in business at UND.
Muckenhirn, a six-foot lefty hurler from Delano, Minn., recorded a sparkling 0.81 earned run average last season. He threw 66 innings and punched out 63 batters in leading the Tigers to the Minnesota Class AA State Tournament for the second consecutive season. Muckenhirn is one of 16,000 semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship program and is looking forward to majoring in mechanical engineering at UND.
"I look forward to doing what I can to help this team win a lot of games over the next few years," Muckenhirn said. "I really like where the UND baseball program is headed and can't wait to be a part of it."
