Eagles, Knights prepare for state

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Both Sleepy Eye St. Mary's and New Ulm High School take to the baseball field Thursday when they open play in the state baseball tournament.

The Knights (23-1) will face Murray County Central at 12:30 p.m. at Shakopee's Tahpah Park in Class 1A opening-round play. The Eagles (21-3) will face defending 3A champion Brainerd at 10 a.m. at St. Paul's Midway Stadium.

SLEEPY EYE ST. MARY'S

Knight head coach Bruce Woitas knows "a little bit on (MCC). They are a very fundamentally-strong team." Murray County Central (Slayton) is coached by former Sleepy Eye High player Terry Boelter and is making its first state tournament appearance in school history.

They enter with a 14-6 season mark. "You hear that they are sound with the fundamentals," Woitas said.

But Woitas said that the Knights, who started the season as the top-ranked team in Class 1A, have accomplished one of their goals. "We wanted to get to the state tournament; we have had this (number one) ranking on our back all year and now we get to go and try to prove it right."

The Knights, who are making their third state tournament appearance and first since 1980, have impressive statistics, scoring 7.6 runs per game while giving up only 2.7 to opponents.

"The kids have reacted well to the pressure of that ranking," said Woitas. "We have addressed to go out and play one game at a time, and we feel pretty confident with our pitchers. We feel that we have five pitchers that we can put out on the hill and they will do the job."

Both Dan Schwartz and Chad Armbruster enter the tournament with 5-0 pitching records, and the team's ERA is an amazing 1.73.

"We have also been strong defensively all year," Woitas said. "You need to have good pitching and defense to win all the games that we have won this year."

On offense, the Knights are solid. "We left runners on base in the playoffs, but we managed to get the job done when we needed it."

And Woitas feels that this team finds the ways to win. "We have confidence. In the game with McLeod West, an elimination game for us, we are trailing by one run in our last at-bat and are down to our last strike with two outs. But our kids had confidence and that springboarded us into the playoffs. We had some tough games with New Ulm Cathedral, Mankato Loyola and Le Center. There were a lot of people who put this team into the state tournament before they accomplished it; they had a lot of pressure on them."

Last year, Sleepy Eye High won the 1A title and head coach Bruce Belseth said that his team's toughest games were in the subsection and section. That competition again this year will keep the Knights ready to play.

"That is one thing about our section; you have to work hard to get out of the section. You still have to be ready to play each game or you will get beat.

"That would be unique to follow suit. But we have to be able to prove that we can."

NEW ULM HIGH

The Eagles will open their play against defending champion Brainerd who enters post-season play with a 22-4 mark. The Warriors are making their 10th appearance and second consecutive spot in the tournament.

The Warriors, the Section 8 champions, feature two strong pitchers in Nate Weiland and Matt Means, who have 7-1 and 8-0 records respectively. Weiland also leads Brainerd in hitting with a robust .456 batting average.

"None of the top seeds (in Section 8) except Brainerd won a game," said New Ulm coach Jim Senske. "They are a club that hits the ball well, especially the fastball. But that (hitting the fastball better than the curve) is typical of high-school kids. They have two starters back, but their current sophomores won the VFW title two years ago so they have talent to fill the spots."

Senske said that Weiland "is the hard thrower plus he bats fourth; a very good hitter and is the only lefthanded hitter in the lineup. They are strong because the have a good football program and weight-training program. They are big and strong and can hit the ball out the park. We will have our hands full."

But Senske feels that if the Eagles get the pitching that they have had in tournaments (no runs in their last 20 innings) and the defense (no errors in their last four games), "we will be in the ballgame."

Senske said that his team "will be focused, and I am sure that they will be. I tell this club that they will be an underdog in both games. If we win, we will probably play Cretin, so there is no pressure on us. If we play like we did against Mankato East, we have a great shot to win. We have come a long way since the start of the season; just go out and have fun."

New Ulm is led by junior shortstop Jamie Hoffmann, who matches Weiland's numbers with a .455 batting average. Sophomore Eric Austvold, along with seniors Travis Thorson and Andy Stolt, are hitting over .310.

Sophomore Bob Wellmann is New Ulm's top pitcher at 8-1 with a 1.74 ERA.