Union Hill, Webster suffer season ending heartbreakers

Things don’t always work out as planned. Heading into the 2025 Minnesota Amateur Baseball Association’s state tournament this past weekend, leaders of area baseball teams from Union Hill, Elko, Webster and Prior Lake were all confident their teams had the right blend of offense and defense to advance to the second round of competition this weekend.

New Prague High School’s girls’ soccer and tennis teams are looking for more success than they enjoyed a year ago. Achieving the teams’ goals will rely on returnees learning lessons from their experiences.

Girls’ soccer A year after the Trojans made the jump to 10-5-3 record from a sub-.500 record, New Prague is again looking to improve.

Despite their best efforts, area town baseball teams couldn't make it out of the opening round of state tournament play.

Saturday, Aug. 16, Webster fell to Raymond, 3-0, and Cold Spring topped Union Hill, 6-5.

Friday night in Glencoe, Elko went down to Sartell, 3-1.

Sunday, 4 p.m., in Hutchinson, Prior Lake takes on Bird Island.

See details in upcoming print edition of The New Prague Times.

Members of four area amateur baseball teams won’t be putting the spikes, bats and gloves away just yet now that their respective teams have won their way into the Minnesota Baseball Association’s State Tournament beginning this weekend.

Webster is going to state as District 5B’s No. 2 seed behind Jordan. The Brewers topped the Sox Saturday, Aug. 9, at the Mini Met.

Prior Lake’s Mudcats will take the district’s No. 3 seed to state thanks to a win over Union Hill Saturday.

Jordan topped Webster Saturday evening, 6-2, to earn District 3B's top seed to the Minnesota Baseball Association's upcoming state tournament.

Webster will take the district's No. 2 seed to state. Prior Lake topped Union Hill, 4-3, Saturday, Aug. 9, for 3B's No. 3 seed. The Bulldogs are the No. 4 seed.

After the Jordan-Webster game, the teams drafted players from other district teams for the state tournament.

As one of 10 teams battling for four state tournament spots in Class A, the St. Patrick Irish took another step in the right direction heading into the final portion of the regular season.

The Irish won two games in come-from-behind fashion this past week, defeating Miesville and the Rochester Royals, two teams also in the hunt for four state tournament berths among the 10 teams in Section 1 of Class A.

Heading into the Gopher State tournament in Waconia with momentum, New Prague found the going tough at the weekend competition.

New Prague entered the tournament having won four of its previous five games.

With the July 4 holiday in the rearview mirror, many area town baseball teams are turning their focus to being in top form for the stretch drive and a spot in the Minnesota Baseball Association postseason tournaments.
In District 3B, Jordan, Union Hill, Webster and New Prague hold the top four spots. Eagle Lake was fifth in the standings last updated June 29. The top five teams receive a first-round bye in the playoffs. The fifththrough 11th-place teams will play a best-of-three series.

Riding a wave of four wins in its last five games, one of the smallest teams in the Dakota-Rice-Scott League is atop the standings heading into the holiday weekend.
Class C Veseli sits atop the DRS at 9-5 with 27½. The Warriors are the beneficiaries of wins over bigger teams, wins garnering greater points than a win over another Class C. The Warriors have two wins over Class B Shakopee and a win over Faribault, a Class A team under the Minnesota Baseball Association’s class system.

Montgomery’s town baseball team must not mind playing in the heat.
On the hottest day of the summer, the Mallards decided to play extra innings, coming through late with four runs in the top of the 11th and a 5-1 win at Webster Sunday, June 22.
Despite banging out 15 hits, the Montgomery hitters stranded 14 runners making the pitchers the stars of the show. Ted Christian worked the first 5 1/3 innings, giving up only five hits and one run and Nolan Readmond getting the win in relief, working 5 2/3 innings allowing just one hit and no runs.

As a player and later a manager, Terry Fredrickson has been connected with the Elko Express for 50 years.
Wednesday, July 2, 7:30 p.m., when the Express host their rivals from New Market, at Fredrickson Field, the Express will retire Fredrickson’s No. 12, the jersey number he wore as a pitcher and sometimes wears while leading the ball club.

After a pair of tough setbacks in the past week, the Elko Express are in an unfamiliar place – needing a victory to build momentum.
At 6-9 overall, the Express fell to Hampton Sunday, June 15, in Hampton.
The Express took an early 3-2 lead after the first inning but then saw the Cardinals tie the game in the third inning and build a 5-3 advantage after four innings.
Elko built a 10-5 lead entering the bottom of the eighth, but Hampton rallied, scoring four times in the eighth and twice more in the bottom of the ninth for the win.

New Prague High School’s boys’ volleyball ended its season in its first match in the Section 1A quarterfinals, Wednesday, May 28. No. 3 seeded Rochester defeated the No. 6 seeded Trojans, 25-18, 25-18 and 25-13 at Rochester Mayo.
“Rochester came out of the gates playing with a lot of force, serving hard and taking big swings,” said New Prague head coach Greg Sayuk. “This worked in their favor, as we adjusted to their gym, which had a lot of low-hanging beams and rafters.”

A pair of wins during the past week has lifted the New Prague Orioles above the .500 mark and into seventh place in the Dakota-Rice-Scott League.
Sunday, June 8, with the wind blowing out at Shakopee’s Joe Schleper Stadium, the Orioles and Coyotes scored a plethora of runs. The Orioles scored two runs in the first with four hits from Eric Wagner, Tom McBroom, James Fuerniss and Beau Plaisance.
The Coyotes answered in the third inning with a two-run homer by Aidan Rau.

St. Patrick kicked off the 2025 season Sunday, May 18, with a 14-3 win in seven innings over Union Hill.
 
With the wind blowing out to left at Bonin Field, the Irish offense took advantage in the bottom of the first inning with four home runs from sluggers Jack Friedges, Ryan Friedges, Robbie Meidl and starting pitcher Ian Segna.
In the third inning, the Irish tacked on four more runs, highlighted by a Tate Marland three-run HR. The Irish tacked on three more runs in the fifth frame and two more in the sixth.
 

Despite their best efforts on a course most of them have played before, the NP girls’ and boys’ golf teams saw their season conclude last week at Ridges of Sand Creek outside Jordan in the section tournament Tuesday and Wednesday, May 27-28.
NP girls The Trojans made the second day of competition, finishing third overall behind section champion Minnetonka (591) and Orono (653).