New Ulm, Sleepy Eye head to St. Cloud for State Tourney

NEW ULM -- Both the New Ulm Brewers and the Sleepy Eye Indians will open up "The Show" this Saturday when the Class "C" Amateur Baseball Tournament opens up in St. Cloud.

The New Ulm Brewers (23-2), the champions of Region 2C, begin its trek in the state tournament when they tangle with Montgomery the Region 4C runners-up, Montgomery Redbirds, at 11 a.m. at Faerber Field which is located next to Dick Putz Field which is being used for playoffs for the St. Cloud Riverbats that day.

The Mallards enter their meeting the the Brewers with a 23-7 meeting. They are one of six teams from the DRS League (Dakota-Rice-Scott League) to have earned their way into the Class "C" state tournament. The others are Lonsdale ( who will meet Sleepy Eye), St. Patrick, Shakopee, Union Hill and Vesli.

"Our league was broken into three divisions and we finished second to Lonsdale. They were 15-4 and we were 14-5 in the White Division," said Montgomery manager Greg Westermann.

"Our strength this year has been our pitching and defense," he said. "Our pitchers have done a good job all year and we have a good defense. We have not kicked the ball around that much."

Leading the Mallards' pitching this year has been Chris Ziskovsky. Westermann says "he has been our horse for most of the year. He is 7-2 as a righthander and has an ERA of 1.75. Our other main starter is Phil Worm who has a 6-3 with a 2.50 ERA. He is also righthanded. We don't have any lefthanders on the pitching staff, which we would like to have. Josh Kuchinka and Robert Weaver come out of the bullpen -- Weaver has been out set-up guy all year. Nick Worm has been our closer all year. He has eight saves. He came into our game that got us into the state tournament. In the eighth and ninth innings and struck out five guys. He throws hard and has good control. He was our main starter when we made a run in the state tournament back in 1999. He had some elbow trouble since then so now he is just limited to closing for us."

Montgomery enters with a team batting average of .285 led by Christian Anderson, a lefthanded hitter who hits around .375 and Kurt Kloog at .335. "Those two are our best hitters."

Westermann said that the wood bat "has helped us. We were never much of a home run hitting team even when the aluminum bat was used. We probably hit 20 (home runs) with the aluminum bat."

He said that his team is "very young. so we don't have a lot of good power hitters. We are a station-to-station type of team."

Montgomery, who had back-to-back appearances in 1998 and 1999 when they finished fourth and fifth respecively, said that this year's squad is almost devoid of any players from those teams.

"The core of that teami is gone. After the 1999 season, we lost 90 percent of our innings pitched and our two through six hitters. But a lot of the players thayt we have now played baseball for Montgomery-Lonsdale High School. That helps a lot with that tradition. And I think that the majority of the players on Lonsdale played high school baseball at Montgomery-Lonsdale so we play some solid baseball."

Westermann said that the keys to success on Saturday will be the old adage of "throwing strikes, not making errors and getting a few clutch hits. I am expecting a low-scoring 3-2 or 4-3 game. And we are playing our best baseball right now."

Sleepy Eye, who enters the tournament with a 20-14 mark, will meet Lonsdale at 1:30 p.m. that same day in St. Cloud.

Lonsdale comes into their meeting with the Indians at 24-8 and the champions of Region 4C.

And like Montgomery, the Aces' strength has been "defense" said manager Brad Vosepica. "Our pitching and hitting has been adequate enough to get is this far and our defense is what we rely on."

Londale's mound staff is led by righthander Chad Hoffmann who is 8-1. Mike Jirik, also a righthander, is 7-3.

Lonsdale enters offensively with a team batting average of .265.

"We have a lot of single and double hitters -- this is our first trip for us to the state since 1998," Vosepica said.

Vosepica said that this team, like Montgomery's "is a very young team. Our youngest is 18 and our oldest is 32, so we are young. This town has been successful in baseball for many years and we play well.

"We need to let our pitcher throw strikes and let our defense work for us the way that they are used to."

He added that while his team is young and inexperienced at the state amateur level, they are experienced in state tournament play with several players on the Montgomery-Lonsdale High School team.

"We have four players who played in that state high school tournament in 1999 and 2000, "Vosepica said. "In 1999, and they were the Class "A" champions and in 2000. They were runners-up so they know how to play baseball. We have a lot of tradition going for us."

Vosepica said he "knows nothing" about Sleepy Eye. "But I am sure that someone will get some information off of the internet."

He felt that going into a state tournament is like going into a blind alley. "You have played a lot of teams throughout the year and when you get to the state, you never know what to expect. There are 32 good teams that are going to be there so you have to play well no matter who you play."

KAISERHOFF PLAYERS DRAFTED: Five players from the New Ulm Kaiserhoff team were drafted this year for state tournament play. Drafted by Mankato were catcher Brady Ranweiler and pitchers Andy Stolt and Josh Hinson. Waseca tabbed pitchers Cory Ranweiler and Ryan Wellmann. Mankato will play Hastings at 5 p.m. Friday in St. Cloud while Waseca tangles with Red Wing at 7:30 also in St. Cloud in the first round of the Class "B" state tournament...Former Kaiserhoff pitcher Brad Keenan is playing for Chaska in the Class "B" state tournament.

POST 132 WINS AWARD; Congratulations go out to New Ulm's Seifert-Bianchi Post 132 which was named the Amercian Legion Baseball Post of the Year by the Minnesota State Amercian Legio

HOBO BAND AT SMILEY'S: The New Ulm Baseball Association is sponsoring the Schell's Hobo Band at Smiley's Bar on Saturday, August 24 from 6-8 p.m. All are welcome. If the Brewers win this weekend, they would play at 11 a.m. that morning in St. Cloud again so there is plentt of time to drive back and celebrate a New Ulm victory that day.

NEW TEAMS IN STATE AMATEUR: There are some new teams in this year's state amateur tournament as 12 teams from last year did not make this year's field....Former Arlington A's pitcher Joe Driscoll, who is currently 52 years old, said he is "seriously considering" coming back next season... This season, the wood bat has made a big difference in scoring. In 61 percent of the games this season in Minnesota, the losing team has scored less than three runs...Deep Realty, which played in the Upper Midwest Classic this year and was beaten by Duluth Lakeview in the semi-finals, knocked out defending Nebraska and Central Plains Regional Champion, Creighton Prep of Omaha this year. Deep Realty will play in the Central Plains Regional in Williston, North Dakota.