By Ryan Simonson
Contributing Writer
Green Isle — At 27, Michael Barnes is the oldest regular player on the roster for the St. Boni Saints. He was also about 8 years from being born the last time the Saints reached a state tournament, back in 1989.
In the years since, St. Boni had struggled to secure its footing, commonly finding itself a lower-tier team in the highly competitive Crow River Valley League and often unable to retain quality players, many of whom would come to Boni to earn their townball stripes before exiting to more prestigious clubs as their stock increased.
Their municipal ballpark was falling into disrepair and culture around the club was waning. When Jared Klahsen took over as the Saints’ field manager in 2022, he immediately went to work with the established St. Boni leadership to change all of that.
In only a couple of short years, St. Boni has demolished its old, crowded dugouts and replaced them with new, larger ones. The home plate area and mound at Missile Park have been overhauled, and the installation of field lights was approved (though not completed as expected in 2024). And the Saints’ roster has also been completely overhauled. An aggressive signing campaign has resulted in a youth movement in St. Boni, with a crop of young, talented ballplayers coming to the Saints from non-traditional recruiting grounds like Eden Prairie, Orono, and Wayzata. The current average age of the team is only 21, highlighted by many current college players.
When asked about the culture shift in St. Boni, Klahsen pointed to, “… getting the right group of young guys on the team that love to play ball, that are friends off the field as well, and just trying to figure out how to be better ballplayers and play together.”
The Saints indeed loved to play ball, coming into the tournament with 41 games played in a rain-soaked season that saw countless cancellations and rescheduled games. It also saw many ups and downs for St. Boni, which finished 20-21 in those 42 games, often struggling to hold leads and letting competitive games slip away. When the Saints advanced as an underdog out of the Crow River playoffs and into the Region 7C tournament for the first time since the 1990s, they opened regional play with a devastating loss to top-seeded Young America, and could have been content with the season’s progress and quietly stumbled into elimination.
Instead they put their heads down and battled through huge come-from-behind victories over perennial state entrants Plato and Watertown to punch their first state ticket in 35 years, then advanced to the second weekend with a victory over Wanamingo.
Klahsen and the Saints faced a tall order in the New Ulm Brewers, Region 2 champs with a gaudy 26-4 record, 15-1 in league play. Led by 41-year-old veteran pitcher Mitch Bockenstedt, the Brewers are known as a deep, excellent hitting team with a broad mix of veterans and young players ranging in age from 16-48.
The Saints got a harmless single off Bockenstedt in the first inning before being retired, and things immediately began going sideways for them in the bottom of the first inning. Brewers’ leadoff hitter Hunter Ranweiler painted a double over the third base bag on the second pitch of the game and seemingly before the dust had settled from his slide into second base, Boni had committed a pair of errors and the Brewers had taken full advantage to push four runs across home plate in the game’s opening frame.
In what became a common theme for the night, St. Boni’s Adrian Warcken hit a two-out triple in the top of the second, but was stranded at third base. Andrew Esposito and Michael Barnes had back-to-back hits in the third without scoring, Esposito got caught at home trying to score on an erratic pitch that bounced right back to New Ulm catcher Ayden Jensen.
The Brewers broke the game open wide in the third inning, connecting for five consecutive hits after Saints pitcher Barnes got the first two batters of the inning out quietly. Another four spot on the board for New Ulm, who now led 8-0.
Seth Tierney led off the fourth with a deep double to the gap, but never left second, as veteran Bockenstedt continued to scatter Boni’s hits. Ryan Grams, a draftee from Brownton, took the mound for the Saints and cruised through his first two innings.
The Saints finally got on the board in the sixth inning, with leadoff hitter Hawken Hedlund smashing a single, but only finally scoring from third rather harmlessly on a groundout to short. It would be St. Boni’s only run of the game.
New Ulm hung four more runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning, including a two-run home run by shortstop Andrew Peters, and after the Saints went down in the top of the seventh (again stranding two runners), their wild season finally came to an end.
Asked about the Saints’ unofficial state tournament slogan, “We’re Not Even Supposed To Be Here,” and the future of the club, Klahsen responded, “It’s all about the guys on the field. They’re the ones who made it happen. I’m excited about it, I know they’re excited about it, too, and it’s not gonna be our last time here.”
New Ulm advances to face the winner of Buckman/Fergus Falls on Saturday, Aug. 31 in Belle Plaine at 1:30 p.m.
Hopkins Berries 9, Victoria Vics 0
Hopkins pitchers Ben Shepard, Gabe Olson, and Jeff Fasching combined for a two-hit shutout of the Vics. The Berries broke the game open in the third inning when Alex Boxwell singled and stole second before scoring on a single by Jordan Kozicky.
Hopkins added another run on a Brock Zimmer solo homerun in the sixth inning, then added five more runs in the seventh and two in the eighth and were on the verge of closing out the game when Victoria turned a double play to end the inning trailing by nine runs.
Hopkins advances to play the Miesville Mudhens on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 1:30 p.m. in Jordan.
Miesville Mudhens 8, St Paul Mudhens 6
Miesville battled back to steal a victory in the Battle of the Mudhens that appeared to be well in hand for St Paul for most of the game.
St. Paul pounced on Miesville starter Quinn Kruger for three runs in the first inning on a string of singles and an Alex Matchey sacrifice fly. Matchey brought home another run with a sacrifice fly in the third and a solo home run by Blake Eckmann made it 5-0 St Paul after four innings.
Miesville finally got to starter Brady Drkula with two runs in the sixth inning, highlighted by an Alex Hendrickson home run to make it a 5-2 game. Miesville added runs in the seventh and eighth inning and entered the ninth inning trailing 5-4.
Matt Van Der Bosh led off the inning by samurai-slicing a single to left field. Miesville then struck out and flew out before Van Der Bosh stole second base and then came home to score on a Brian Sprout single to center field that was nearly caught on a diving attempt by Saint Paul center fielder Riley Schwellenbach. The next hitter, Alex Henrickson, smashed a double to right center field, scoring pinch runner Evan Nelson to give the Hens a 6-5 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Eckmann crushed his second home run of the game to tie the game, which then went into extra innings.
A Ronnie Sweeny two-run homer in the 10th inning would be all Miesville needed to complete the unimaginable comeback and walk away with an 8-6 victory.
Miesville advances to play the Hopkins Berries on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 1:30 p.m. in Jordan.
Watkins Clippers 7, Carver Black Sox 4
It was a classic outing for Watkins ace Matt Geislinger, who struck out 15 in seven innings, allowing five hits and only two earned runs before handing the ball off to draftee from St. Martin, Scott Lieser, who took the victory home.
The Clippers took an early 3-0 lead before Carver came charging back in the fourth, capitalizing on a pair of Watkins’ errors to tie the game at 3-3. The Black Sox briefly took a lead in the fifth when starting pitcher Bailey Melz doubled with two outs and then scored on a Justin Kloster single.
Watkins came charging back in the bottom half of the fifth frame, scoring four runs on a string of Carver defensive mishaps that would put it ahead 7-4, which would be the game’s final score.
Watkins advances to face the Buffalo Bulldogs on Saturday, Aug. 31 at 4 p.m. in Belle Plaine.
