Kunz looks

at season

and sees

positives

NEW ULM -- New Ulm Legion Gold ended its 2001 season the same way it started -- with a win.

New Ulm's 7-1 victory over Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the Central Plains American Legion Baseball Tournament capped a 36-7 season for Gold that began with a season-opening win over St. James.

In between the 11-1 win at St. James and the 7-1 victory in Cedar Rapids, Gold won 34 more games and captured tournament titles at the Detroit Lakes Water Carnival, the Upper Midwest Classic and won the River City Tournament with a split squad when New Ulm High was in the Class 3A state tournament. Gold also won the Second District Tournament -- New Ulm's 24th district crown.

Gold also finished second in the Fergus Falls Tournament.

"We advanced further every year that I have coached," said Dave Kunz. "This team had the talent to go further than any of the other four teams. I was a little disappointed in the loss to Coon Rapids (for the state title). But we still managed to go to a regional, which we had not done since 1995 (New Ulm won the state title that year and went to Salina, Kan.).

"Overall, I was very pleased with this team. This was one of the most balanced teams that we have had here."

New Ulm finished second to Coon Rapids in the state championship and played in the round-robin format of the Central Plains Regional where they met up with Creighton Prep (Neb.), a team Gold had beaten for the title in this year's Upper Midwest Classic.

GOLD DOMINATED FOR FOUR GAMES: After winning the Second District championship with two wins over Sleepy Eye, Gold proceeded to dismantle its first four opponents in the state tournament. Gold defeated Waseca, East Grand Forks, Excelsior and Coon Rapids.

In those games, they never trailed. But in the title game against Coon Rapids, New Ulm held a 4-0 lead before Coon Rapids came from behind to win the state title.

That sent New Ulm to Cedar Rapids where they met up with Creighton Prep.

Creighton scored 12 first-inning runs to end all speculation about the outcome.

"They were in their sixth game (at our tournament) and their first game (in the regionals)," said Kunz. "I think that they were a little happy and more fired up when they found out that they were going to play us again. They figured that this was a good time to get a little revenge on us from that loss up here. We didn't get the job done and they did."

That 19-5 loss sent Gold into a tailspin as they fell to LaCrosse 11-2, but it was not an indication of the talent differential between New Ulm and its two opponents.

"If you take those 30 runs scored against us, out of those runs, 27 where scored in four innings. When you get to the regionals, all teams there are solid and you cannot give them extra chances.

"One of the keys for us during the season was to maximize our opportunities and minimize our opponents (chances)," Kunz said. "And we did a very good job of minimizing our opponents chances. We would get a big defensive play or one of our pitchers really stepped it up or we got those key hits. I don't know if the players lost confidence.

"It is a natural thing in any sport that when things start going wrong, you start to doubt yourself a little bit. In those individual innings, we did. Take away those big innings, and the end result may have been different."

LOSS SENDS MESSAGE: Kunz said after the loss to La Crosse, New Ulm knew that they would be done after their game with Cedar Rapids.

"Once the kids knew that, they responded well," he said. "This team accomplished a lot this year. I think that this team was very close-knit. Last year's team was also close."

And next year? Well, the cupboard is not bare -- far from it.

Gold returns a number of players, including Bob Wellmann, Jamie Hoffmann, Eric Austvold and Dusty Wilfahrt to name a few. And they have players coming up from New Ulm Blue in right fielder Brandon Rolloff and pitcher Jacob Mertz to name a few there. Plus, New Ulm Junior Legion and New Ulm VFW Gold each had solid seasons with a lot of young talent. So New Ulm will be back again next year, setting its sites on playing baseball again into August

"The potential is there -- we were working with feeder teams going to the state tournament." Kunz said. "It will be interesting (next year)."

CREIGHTON TO PLAY FOR TRIP: Creighton Prep was to play Minot, N.D., last night with the winner going to the American Legion World Series in Yakima, Wash. Also, Coon Rapids mirrored New Ulm's regional in the Great Lakes Regional in Lancaster, Ohio, going 1-2. Mike Patterson, who homered for Coon Rapids against New Ulm, had three home runs in the regional tournament.

BREWERS DISAPPOINTED IN LOSS: Last year, the New Ulm Brewers rode deep into the Class C tournament. But this year, their season came to a sudden close with a loss to Litchfield that ended their season at 24-5.

"We came out flat," said first-year manager Chris Peters. "We did not hit the ball well. Their pitcher was not overpowering, but he changed speeds well and hit his corners. We did not have the chance to get our bats going until the later innings.

"They are a good hitting club -- they had some hits that fell in -- but they are going to hit the ball each game," Peters said. "We would rather be playing yet but we will be back next year. We had some new faces in Phil Clennon and Todd Hoffmann, who both said that they would be back. Most of our players will be back. Phil stepped it up at the end of the year and really had some fun with us. Todd had a good year and he was happy to be playing."

TOURNAMENT RECORD SET: Tom Tupy, a pitcher from St. Patrick's, set a tournament record when he threw only 76 pitches in a win over Clinton ... Todd Schmidtke of Blue Earth led his club to a 6-5 win over Fergus Falls with three hits.