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Maple Grove wins Junior Upper Midwest Classic

Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm VFW Gold’s Teagan Kamm slides into third past Maple Grove third baseman Dylan Peck during Maple Grove’s win in the Junior Upper Midwest Classic Sunday at Johnson Park in New Ulm. For more photos of this event go to cu.nujournal.com.

NEW ULM — Maple Grove used four of their seven hits in the third inning to score three runs, and Crimson pitcher Jared Hansen held New Ulm bats to five hits, as Maple Grove defeated New Ulm VFW Gold 4-1 Sunday in a semi-final of the Junior Upper Midwest Classic at Johnson Park.

The only run allowed by Hansen came in the top of the seventh inning when New Ulm scored on a fielder’s choice.

Nolan Drill took the loss for Gold. He went 6 2/3 innings and permitted six hits and all four runs — one unearned.

Nathan Ross had three hits for Maple Grove and drove in two runs.

Maple Grove then went on to defeat Mankato 7-6 to repeat as the Junior Upper Midwest Classic champions. This was their sixth JUMC championship.

For the VFW Gold head coach Mike Munce, it was a case of some shaky defense that led to some runs.

“Pitchers kept us in the game,” he said. “We had some fielding problems with four errors on the board. We were still in the game at the end — we had a chance in the seventh (inning), but we did not play our best baseball today. And at this time of a tournament, you have to.”

Maple Grove got all of the runs that Hansen would need in the second inning when they plated three runs.

Daniel Marxsen led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by J.T. House. Hansen was hit by a Drill offering before Nathan Kasper legged out an infield single to load the bases.

Blake Borgerson’s single scored Marxsen. A one out single from Nathan Ross scored a second run before a New Ulm infield error added the third run.

That was all that Hansen really needed as he kept New Ulm base runners off the bases. He did not allow a Gold base runner to reach third base until the sixth inning when Teagan Kamm singled and got as far as third.

“We need to get better when we are ahead in the count,” said Munce, who saw his team held to just four hits through six innings. “He kept us off-balance with his off-speed stuff.”

Hansen was also aided by three double plays by his defense, including the game-ending twin killing in the seventh when Gold broke the shutout.

That came when Alex Hillesheim singled. Two walks loaded the bases for New Ulm before a fielder’s choice scored the run.

Despite the loss, Munce was happy with the 3-1 record posted by his team in the tournament.

“I am absolutely happy with the way we played,” he said. “The kids played hard all weekend, and our pitchers had us in every game. It was a successful weekend.”

New Ulm is off until Wednesday when they host Sibley East at 5:30 p.m. at Mueller Park.

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