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NEW ULM -- The Second District American Legion Baseball Tournament will begin today in Fairmont and if you are a Legion baseball fan, you need only take a 45-mile trek on Minnesota 15 to see some good baseball.

Both New Ulm teams, Gold and Blue, will be in action today along with Sleepy Eye and Lamberton.

At 3 p.m., Sleepy Eye, rated third in the district, will take on sixth-seeded Mankato. At 5:30 p.m., both New Ulm squads will take to the diamond for games and Lamberton will meet Eagle Lake at 8 p.m.

Gold, the defending Second District champion and rated first, will meet the winner of the Worthington/Fairmont game on Field A while Blue, seeded second, will tangle with the survivor of the Blue Earth/Redwood Falls contest.

Sleepy Eye takes a 12-9 record into its opening-round game against Mankato.

"We did not play them during the season," said coach John Hirschboeck. "We were supposed to play them this year, but it did not work out."

Hirschboeck feels his team "is playing OK. It helped us to play that tough game with New Ulm Gold (a 3-2 eight-inning loss for Sleepy Eye) and then we beat Blue Earth last Thursday so hopefully we are on the right track."

And Sleepy Eye may well be a team that could surprise a lot of people with members of the Class 1A runners-up Sleepy Eye St. Mary's team on the squad. Sleepy Eye also can point to the one-run loss to New Ulm Gold after being hammered by 13 runs earlier in the year. Sleepy Eye has the players to do a lot of damage in the tournament.

"The only disappointing thing about that (3-2 loss) was that we had chances to win that game and did not get the key hit,"commented Hirschboeck. "And we have to do that in the tournament."

Hirschboeck said Cody Walter, Chad Armbruster and Steve Eckstein have all been playing well for his team lately. "They are probably our leading hitters along with Andy Konz.

"I am not worried about our defense and pitching entering the tournament," said Hirschboeck. "But we have not hit the ball real well when we needed to."

BLUE HAS CONFIDENCE: Meanwhile, New Ulm Blue enters the tournament in the unusual position of being seeded second in the tournament with a 9-4 record as they prepare to meet more than likely Blue Earth at 5:30 today. Blue Earth and Redwood Falls will play at noon today.

"Our last game against Fairmont, we did not play well, but I think that we have confidence going into the tournament," Legion Blue coach Paul Buboltz said.

Blue has not played Redwood Falls this year, but owns a 4-3 win over Blue Earth, which possesses a good pitcher in Lee Hodges and a quality hitter in T.J. Schmidtke.

"They (Blue Earth) has a good pitcher and they did not hit the ball well against us. But they have a lot of good hitters on their team," Buboltz said.

Buboltz added he will send left-hander Jacob Mertz to the mound today.

"As long as we get a good game from Jacob and we come out hitting the ball, we have a good chance of winning. We also need that solid defense."

And Blue has some quality players on the squad with Mertz in Dusty Fleck and Brandon Rolloff. "(Brandon) and Dusty are our two best hitters along with Travis Boddy. (Fleck and Rolloff) have been batting three and four in the lineup and driving in a lot of runs," Buboltz said.

Buboltz said lead-off hitter Cory Schnobrich and Isaac Forstner have been stepping up their games in the later part of the season.

Crystal-balling, wins by both Blue and Sleepy Eye will pit the two teams against each other at 5 p.m. Saturday.

"We came out flat and did not have a good game (in a loss to Sleepy Eye)," Buboltz said. "We need to beat Blue Earth first."

Again, watch out for Blue Earth in this tournament.

GOLD HAS TOP SEED: It was no big surprise when New Ulm Gold received the top seed. New Ulm comes in "pretty loose," said coach Dave Kunz, whose team has a 26-3 record.

"We know that we have to come out and play our best baseball to win," he said. "We know that no matter who we play, we need to come out and play hard."

Gold has perhaps the best overall depth of any team in the district.

"We know that everyone is going to be trying to knock us off so we need to be ready," Kunz added.

GFW TO CHANGE CONFERENCES?: The Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop School Board is entertaining a thought to leave the Tomahawk Conference (in winter and spring sports) and join the Minnesota River Conference for all sports.

The GFW School Board has set a Sept. 1 date to decide on the matter. The T-Birds currently play in the Gopher/Valley Conference in football.

Column by Jim Bastian,

Journal Sports Writer