Eagles set many records Monday against USC

NEW ULM - The New Ulm High School baseball team set five school records in their 23-2 shellacking of United South Central Monday afternoon at Johnson Park.

Their 17 runs in the first inning was a school record as well as a South Central Conference record. Their 12 hits in one inning was also a new school mark.

The 23 straight hitters that reached base -- all after two outs -- is also in the record books.

New Ulm's three straight triples (Jamie Hoffmann, Jace Marti and Brandon Rolloff) is also a new school mark as is Jace Marti's two triples in the same inning.

The 23-2 blasting of the Rebels -- who played their last baseball game at Johnson Park as a member of the South Central Conference as they will join the Gopher-Valley next year -- is not a school record.

Back in 1961, the Eagles drilled Gibbon 29-0 and in 1945, New Ulm pasted Wabasso 29-1.

Other toe-taggings include wins of 21-0 and 20-0 over Sleepy Eye in 1937, a 25-2 win in 1946 over Wabasso and wins of 25-2 and 25-0 over St. Peter and Sleepy Eye in 1951 and 1955 respectively.

I know that a lot of people will roll their eyes and say "Well, New Ulm should be teams like that in the South Central Conference -- big deal." But let's remember that the Eagles have to play these SCC teams -- they are in the conference and there is nothing that can be done about it.

This is a very good Eagle team that I feel will repeat as Section 2-3A champions. There are a lot of leaders on this team like junior pitcher Bob Wellmann and senior shortstop Jamie Hoffmann. And you know that a young pitcher like a Tyson Anderson or Dusty Farasyn or a Chris Cariveau will surprise people at the varsity level.

VETTER NAMED ATHLETIC DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR: Congratulations go out to New Ulm Cathedral Athletic Director John Vetter who was honored recently as the Section 2A Athletic Director of the Year.

"I was made known of this award in October and received this award in April.," said Vetter who was chosen over 40 of his peers and given the award at the State Athletic Directors Conference.

"There were eight regional athletic directors chosen in Class A and eight in AA regions," Vetter said. "It is a nice honor to receive. When you are talking about 40 athletic directors in the region it is certainly something that I appreciate."

FOOTBALL AT MARTIN LUTHER COLLEGE: While the focus with the spring weather has turned to baseball, softball, track and tennis, football players at Martin Luther College are working out on their own to prepare for the 2002 Knight season.

"The players do it on their own," said Knight football coach Denny Gorsline. "We coaches cannot be around because the NCAA Division III says football coaches cannot be around for this so the players work out on their own. They have dates picked out with the seniors and captains watching over the workouts."

Gorsline said that the players work without pads on "fundamentals. They will work on stances for the defensive line and getting their hands in the proper location and work on rip and swim moves. The (defensive backs) work on their stances and run drills like the flip and shoot drill and go through various coverages. All the players really work on their stances and technique."

Gorsline said that the players do work on some "skelly" (skeleton drills) with the offensive pass plays going against the defensive backs."

"I'll talk to the captains in the weight room and ask them how things are going," Gorsline said. "The captains are working on a speed-training program twice a week -- they started that after Easter. We have 39 kids doing that."

NEW PLAYERS AT MARTIN LUTHER COLLEGE: Gorsline said that he thinks that he will have a good freshman class coming in at MLC this fall..

"We think that both Joel Russow and Sam Hunter from MVL will be coming here and we are hoping that Aaron Madson also decides to come here," he said. "We have A. J. Cruze from St. Crox Lutheran coming here for sure along with several others. Fox Valley Lutheran is sending Brent Krause. We are hoping that we get JoJo Moore from Luther Prep. My son Todd is coaching there and said that he is a good running back. He is better than Eli Cloute who was here and supposedly Wisconsin has looked at him as has Nebraska and North Dakota. There is a 50-50 chance of him coming here."

Also coming to MLC for sure are Luther Preps' T.J. Herlich. ("A strong lineman who likes to lift weights."). Gorsline has seen him play. " I went down there and I watched him and he looks like a college player. He is big and strong and has an attitude."

Luther Preps' Rob Dallmann, John Seelow, Brent Blobaum and Tom Voss are also MLC-bound. "I also stopped off at Luther Prep where (former MVL coach ) Jim Bauer is at and we got some commitments there. "

Gorsline said that not coaching the women's basketball team this year has allowed him to do some visiting with potential players. "And we also have a player coming from Michigan Lutheran Seminary in Saginaw in Seth Dedirick who is a good player. Ray Tanner is also a good running back who is looking strong towards MLC -- he is at MLS and I flew there to talk to him. Our kids (at MLC) have also really tried to get these kids from MLS."

BAUER COACHING WITH BROTHER: Gorsline said that former MVL football and basketball coach Jim Bauer is still at Lakeside Lutheran. "He is an assistant football coach to his brother Paul there. Paul played for me at MLC -- they ran the old MVL Blackduck offense there."

There are four Bauers coaching at Luther Prep in Jim and wife Gayle (head girl's basketball coach) along with Jim's brother Paul and Jim's oldest daughter Amy.

MOELTER AT ST. PETER: Former New Ulm High School baseball player Kurt Moelter is in his first year as the head baseball coach at St. Peter.

"I've always like coaching baseball," he said prior to his game against his former coach Jim Senske. "It is a lot of fun but it has been a lot of work also -- the paper work, the planning of practices, make sure kids stay eligible. You have one or two sets of eyes on 25 kids. And they (the kids) make it a lot of fun for me."

Moelter, who also teaches math at St. Peter High School, said that he wants to "make the team strong defensively. Making sure that pitchers cover first base on certain situations. There is a lot of teaching because I am teaching the kids some things that you hope that they know at the varsity level. We are really working on the fundamentals."

Moelter wants to build s strong youth baseball program in St. Peter and plans on working with the VFW program there. "I worked with the legion program there last year -- in the VFW program. I would like to get between 20-30 games during the summer for them so then when I get them in the varsity, they know what to expect from me. It all starts in the summer program."

BERG AT SOUTH DAKOTA STATE: Jake Berg, who graduated from Minnesota Valley Lutheran last year is a member of the South Dakota State University swimming team.

"He has done a good job for us," said Brad Erickson, the swimming and diving coach at SDSU. "He competes in the 50 and 100 free-style events for us. He is competitive in our program and in our conference. He was a top eight finisher in the conference. He was timed at 22.21 in the 50 and in the 100 he was mid 49 seconds."

Erickson said that he wants Berg to take off 7/8ths of a second on the 50 time and probably two seconds quicker in the 100. "The main thing that he needs to work on is his stroke technique. He has the strength and he is working more on the strength but we do need the technique work for him to get the times down.

"He had a lot of injuries this year to his knee and hip," commented Erickson. "And those are things that have hampered his swim career for a while."