Three weeks of baseball, two townball champions finally crowned in 100th state tournament

There were 76 games played and one forfeit over three weekends in the 100^th Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament. The last of those came Monday, when Maple Lake defeated Bird Island, 6-4, in the Class C championship in Delano.

This was the fourth state championship for Maple Lake, the most recent coming in 2012. Bird Island was a first-time finalist, although its most-notable athletic son – Barry Wohler – was the MVP in pitching Belle Plaine (where he coached football) to a Class C title in 1994.

The title in Class B, with its new arrangement this summer, was decided on Sunday in Dassel. Air Freight Unlimited defeated Shakopee 4-2 for that title.

Last October, it was announced Class A — traditionally, teams within the Interstate 694-494 circle around the Twin Cities — would be merged with outer-ring and outstate teams classified as Class B by the state baseball board's point system.

Once you figure out the NBA salary cap, you will be invited to take on the baseball board's point system. But the result was a 32-team, single-elimination tournament played at the same ballparks as Class C's 48-team tournament.

Those were Delano, Dassel and Litchfield — and, for the first weekend, Waconia. All fine ballyards, with Delano perhaps the best to be found among the 269 teams playing this form of amateur baseball in Minnesota.

Mike "Doc'' Nagel has been the manager at Bird Island for nearly three decades. This also was Nagel's ninth year on the nine-person board that oversees the Minnesota Baseball Association. Nagel is the secretary-treasurer and helps deal with eligibility rules. The major issue these days is that the 269 teams electronically submit "contracts'' for players on their rosters.

"It's a simple process,'' Nagel said. "It can be done in one minute on your phone, if you want to go that route.''

The new Class B tournament started with the Victoria Vics having submitted a roster with four players that did not have contracts — and thus a forfeit to the Minnetonka Millers, a long-time power in Class A competition.

"It was refreshing to have a team say, 'It was our mistake,' and take responsibility, which is what happened with Victoria,'' Nagel said Monday night.

Once that stumble was put aside, the tournaments proceeded with minimal controversy. Class C drew the larger crowds, as always with its wide-spread rural appeal. And the new Class B proved successful, thanks to the ability of the traditional Class B teams to compete with the former Class A teams from four Twin Cities-area leagues.

It wasn't that way Saturday, when I was in Litchfield and watched Minnetonka beat up on St. Patrick 16-0 in a quarterfinal game. Then again, much like Cleveland did on Monday by using position player David Fry for four innings against the Twins, the Irish gave up nine runs in the eighth with an overmatched reliever.

Five of the eight teams in the Class B quarterfinals were traditional Bs. It was two of each in the semis, where Air Freight defeated Minnetonka 5-2 (former Class As) and Shakopee defeated Cold Spring 11-8 (traditional Class Bs).

Air Freight is a Bloomington company that has been sponsoring a collection of mostly St. Paul players since 1999. The roster is full of current and former University of St. Thomas players, although managed these days by Tom Kolar, a former St. John's player.

"The skills of a Johnnie are needed to organize a bunch of Tommies,'' Kolar joked.

What helped the most was Graham Laubscher, a left-handed pitcher who had considerable success at St. Thomas. He struck out 21 Minnetonka Millers in the semis, and had a record 60 strikeouts in four appearances — three complete games and then in relief vs. Shakopee.

He was the Class B MVP, as well as the winner of Mike Davison Award for outstanding pitcher.

In Class C, Jordan and Delano were two of the favorites, and there were dreams of an astounding crowd if they were to meet in a semifinal late Sunday.

But they both lost in the quarterfinals — Delano, 1-0 ,to Bluffton (with Sebeka draftee Kolby Kiser on the mound) and Jordan, 3-0, to Maple Lake (with Dassel-Cokato draftee Jordan Flick on the mound).

When the quarters concluded, there was a possibility that the Billygoats from Buckman (pop. 312) would be meeting the Braves from Bluffton (pop. 212) in Sunday's final.

Maple Lake and Bird Island ended that incredible possibility with wins in the semis, and then came the final — and a Maple Lake title.

"You get to the end of four games on a weekend, playing in 95-degree heat, and you don't always play you're best,'' Nagel said. "We didn't, and I'm sure Maple Lake didn't feel that way, either, but they outplayed us.''

Hunter Malachak from Maple Lake was the MVP (14-for-23 at the plate; plus 3-0 on the mound).

"All in all, it was a great tournament.'' Nagel said. "The new Class B worked, we had upsets and tight games in Class C. And our crowds, a total of 28,007, were the largest total since 1953.''