NEW ULM — The 38th annual Upper Midwest Classic begins on Thursday at Johnson Park when New Um Legion Blue meets Rosetown at 6 p.m. followed by New Ulm Legion Gold playing Le Sueur-Henderson at approximately 8:30 p.m.

The 2017 UMC continues in full force on Friday with games beginning at 11 a.m. in Searles, Essig and Mueller Parks and at 11:30 a.m. at Johnson Park and continuing all day Friday and Saturday with the semifinals and finals scheduled for Sunday at Johnson Park.

Sixteen American Legion baseball teams from Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska will participate.

Pool A consists of New Ulm Gold, Grand Rapids, Le Sueur-Henderson and Waconia. Pool B has teams from Harrisburg, (S.D), Marshall, Forest Lake and Creighton. Pool C features Sleepy Eye, Stillwater, North St. Paul and Eastview with Pool D teams being New Ulm Blue, Brandon Valley, (S.D.) Rosetown and Chaska.

Here is a thumbnail sketch of some of the teams that wil be returning led by defending champion Creighton Prep of Omaha. After winning the UMC last year with a win over Brandon Valley, Creighton went on to advance to the American Legion World Series.

This year’s team comes back strong again. In spring baseball, it went 23-12 and is currently 25-3.

It is led by University of Minnesota-bound pitcher Josh Culver along with future University of Omaha pitcher Tommy Steier and Hutchinson Community College pitcher Zach Philbon and Southern Community College player Will Hanafan.

It also has two other players who have committed to D-I college baseball programs in juniors Dylan Phillips who will attend Kansas State and Owen Rich who is Creighton University bound.

Cam Blossom leads Prep with a .391 batting average with Zach Firmature leading Creighton with four home runs and 31 RBIs.

While Creighton is a familiar face to the UMC, a newcomer to the Classic is Waconia.

While Waconia is only 3-0 on the year, it’s because of their high school’s run to the Class 3A title this year in which they went 26-0. Last year, it won its first Sub-State 15 championship in program history.

Jake Andrerly and Justin Schultz are both hitting .500.

Waconia also features future college baseball players in Fredrich (Upper Iowa), Alex Logelin (Winona State) and Jack Stoddard (Rochester CC) along with future Southwest State football player Jake Hendricks and future Minnesota State University, Mankato wrestler Justin Schultz.

Forest Lake comes in with some local flavor as former New Ulm baseball player Brian Raabe is an assistant coach.

Raabe, the head baseball coach at Bethel College, has a son, Zack, who is playing for Forest Lake and who has committed to play baseball for the Gophers next year.

Le Sueur-Henderson, New Ulm Gold’s first opponent, has Cole Pengilly who will play baseball next year for Gustavus Adolphus College and was the first player in program history to play in the Cambria Play All-Star series. He was a 2017 AA all-star. Pengilly is hitting .464 and leads the team with 28 RBIs. Jayce Luna, who is 2-0 this year, will start against New Ulm Gold on Thursday.

Harrisburg comes here with a 6-13 record and is led by Zach Lanier, who will play college baseball next year at Northern State and Tanner Brown, who is Augustana bound.

Chaska comes in at 4-3 and has future Northern State pitcher Zach Hartford (2-0, 2.70 ERA) and pitcher Ryan Rodriguez, who will play baseball next year for University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Grand Rapids enters the UMC at 7-4 and coming off winning its 10-team tournament last week when it beat Nisswa for the title. It is led by 2016 graduate Tanner Shepard, who caught for Itasca Community College this year. He is hitting .425. Jack Bowman, a 2017 graduate, is 2-0 on the mound and will play next year for Dawson Community College in Montana.

North St.Paul enters this year’s Classic at 12-7 and is led by pitcher Eric Kubiatowcz who has a 4-0 record and a 1.16 ERA.

And Marshall makes its fourth appearance in the Classic and made a late start because of a berth in the state baseball tournament. Marshall is 3-1 and has a good mixture of players across three graduating years.