NUBA

scholarships awarded

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm Baseball Association has announced its scholarship winners for the 2002 season.

Jeff Dolan of Minnesota Valley Lutheran, Corey Schnobrich of New Ulm Cathedral and Jace Marti ot New Ulm High School will each receive a $500 scholarship from the New Ulm Baseball Association.

Dolan has played varsity baseball at MVL two years as a secondbaseman, shortstop and pitcher. When asked to describe himself as a player on his questionaire, Dolan commented "I am always giving my best -- I try to help the team in whatever way I can. I try to help others which is something that I will do as a teacher in the future."

The future Martin Luther College student has been on the honor roll at MVL every semester and is a member of the National Honor Society, was Academic All-Conference, was a Presidential Education Award winner and was voted the captain of this year's Charger team.

"New Ulm is a town of great baseball tradition. The fan support for New Ulm teams is always great -- the players in New Ulm are well-coached and fundamentally strong and have a great understanding of the game.I have been blessed with the opportunity to play baseball in New Ulm and it is an experience that I will never forget."

Schnobrich,when asked how his coach would describe him, commented that he would say "is a solid infielder who makes very few errors. At the plate and in the field, he uses his speed to his advantage."

Schnobrich, who will attend St. John's University next year and will be studying for either a bachelor's degree or a master's degree in architecture, was the class salutatorian and won the Greyhound Award. He was also named to the Tomahawk Conference All-Conference team.

"New Ulmites love their baseball -- they have and always will. It would be difficult to think of another community in the state that has stronger tradition in baseball than New Ulm."

Marti, who will attend the Univesity of Minnesota-Duluth next year, said that "I play the game because I love the game. I play clean and do not trash talk. I am a team player who is a good student (3.79 GPA) and a hard worker.

Marti, who will major in Graphic Design at UMD, is a member of the National Honor Society, the winner of the Jason Scott Waldner Memorial Scholarship and the Art Achievement Award winner

He also successfully recovered from off-season surgery on his throwing shoulder.

"New Ulm is one of the best baseball towns in the state. There is great support from the community. New Ulm has great baseball tradition. I love playing baseball in New Ulm and there no other place that I would want to play for."

PLAYOFFS BEGIN: The "Second Season" has begun for local amateur teams this week.

The New Ulm Kaiserhoff faces a do-or-die contest at 7:30 tonight p.m. at Johnson Park when they try and even their Section playoff series with Mankato.

Kaiserhoff needs a big peformance both on offense and defense. New Ulm teams play well when they have to.

In the Tomahawk East League, the format will be "Double Round Robin" which was decided by a 4-0 vote Wednesday night.

Essig will be at the Brewers tonight at 8 p.m. at Mueller Park with Sleepy Eye playing at Stark also at 8 p.m in the one-game playoff that determines draft picks for Regional play.

'These games are basically for draft picks," said Essig's Terry Helget. "It is not all that important of a game. We are not going to throw any of our top couple of pitchers. If we win, we win; if we don't, we don't. Tha game would be important if there was a real top-notch draft pick (from Tomahawk East team's who have seen their season end) out there. I am not saying that there isn't, but there are guys who are about the same. It is not worth throwing your best pitcher (Friday)."

"The (double round-robin) can take its toll on pitchers," he said. "I have long held that it is the best way to determine who your two best teams are from the section to go to state."

And Helget and Essig have some experience with that.

"Back in 1995, we were 21-1 (going into the playoffs) and we got caught up in a regional format which was simply a best 2-out-of-3 series. We happened to lose this draft game and were the runners-up and faced Sleepy Eye who got hot right then in that 2-out-of-3 series. We lost a close game in the first game, won a close game in game two and then we lost game three and our season was over. We ended up 25-5 -- that left a bad taste in our mouth."

Helget said that the wood bats have leveled the playing field even more coming into the playoffs.

"The difference between your top team and your other teams is not so great any more. Runs are at a premium. Good pitching will be beat good hitting and teams that score first have a huge advantage."

New Ulm Brewer manager Chris Peters said that the double round-robin is a lot of baseball in eight days -- three games in eight days. Your pitching gets tested."

The Brewers enter the playoffs "very healthy. Troy Kamm (who injured an ankle earlier in the season) is coming back and should be close to 100 percent. And our pitching is solid."

"This was the most popular way to go for the playoffs with the double round-robin," said Tomahawk East League president Myron Seidl. "There were four options for the playoffs - two out of three, three out of five, double elimination and the double round-robin. Each team is asked to pick what they wanted and this year, everyone wanted this."

Sleepy Eye manager Raplh Zwaschka said that "there could be some impact players picked up after (Friday night's games). Last year, we had a three-out-of-five playoff series, they knew who they would be playing. Now, they do not know who they will be playing. This is the neutralizer."

Zwaschka said that the Indians, who will play at Stark tonight, "are healthy and we should have our top two pitchers healthy. This will be a battle of four teams -- people may say that New Ulm has an edge because of their pitching depth, but the fact is that you can only put one pitcher out there at a time."

STATE LEGION PAIRINGS: The winner of this weekend's Second District American Legion Baseball Tournament --Worthington, Mankato, Sleepy Eye or New Ulm Gold -- will begin play in the State Legion Tournament on Thursday, Aug. 8, at 11 a.m. against the Tenth District Rnners-up in Milroy.

The winner of that match-up will play at 7 p.m. against the winner of the First District and District Seven/Host game in Milroy. The loser of that first game would play again at 4:30 p.m.. also in Milroy.