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Column: Eagles move away from Johnson and Mueller Park

For the first time since 1939, the New Ulm Eagles baseball team will not have their home games in the friendly confines of Johnson Park or Mueller Park.

On April 5, the New Ulm baseball team is scheduled to play its first home game at its new facility at New Ulm High School when it hosts St. Peter in a Big South Conference game.

New Ulm is scheduled to have six home games during the regular season at the high school before the Section 2AAA tournament is played at both Johnson and Mueller Parks in May.

“That was determined by the section,” District 88 Superintendent Jeff Bertrang said. “I know that the concern that the section has for this year is German Street being tore up in front of Johnson Park and how that might affect people getting in and out of Johnson Park versus Mueller Park.

“We will have baseball at the new field sometime this spring when the frost comes out of the ground,” Bertrang said. “It has a scoreboard, dugouts — it is what I call a functional field. The restrooms will be in the school by the concession stand like they were for football. But we will also have satellites that can be used.”

Bertrang knows that with the Eagles moving to the high school field that it is a big change for everyone from the fans to the players.

“Everything has changed,” he said. “Just like football, we used to play at Johnson Field but now we play at the high school. We used to play soccer at Martin Luther College and now we play at the high school. For our kids it is more about ownership. Now they have their own facility — they can walk out of the locker room and be right on the field. We have one field for the varsity and one for the B-squad.”

There are also lights on the varsity field.

“They will be used,” Bertrang said. “Troy [Guentzel], New Ulm High School Activities Director] is working with the coaches on the sequencing as far as when to play what level and what team we are playing — they might have three levels. Do we play B-squad first on the varsity field and then varsity after that. That is all trying to be worked out right now.”

Bertrang said that he has not received any feedback — good or bad — about playing baseball at the new facility.

“We have not played a game up there yet,” he said. “But I know that they love the idea of soccer and football up at the high school. We wanted to get away from the idea of having to rent fields. When you have three teams (Minnesota Valley Lutheran, New Ulm Cathedral and New Ulm High School) trying to rent the same fields when the spring rainouts happen and you try and reschedule it is a nightmare. We can now control when we play and when we do not play versus the city telling us and we are not trying to reschedule around them.”

Bertrang also said that a batters eye is going to be built on the varsity field during the season.

“We are working with M&R on the timing of that,” Bertrang said. “Our plan is that it will be a collapsible batters eye. It will go up and down like a sail. When we are not playing ballgames it is down because there is so much wind up there.”

Bertrang knows that he may get feedback from people who played high school baseball at Johnson Park and why not keep playing there.

“We have our own field and we do not have to have the city tells us when we can be on a field,” he said. “They will get used to it. Johnson and Mueller Parks are great ballparks and they have been here a while. It is the same size as Johnson Park and Troy is working on a special to have one game for the kids at Johnson Park each year. We all have our memories and memories change in time.”

WATCH KNOWLES, HOFFMANN THIS WEEKEND: If you want to watch New Ulmites Gabe Knowles of the Minnesota Gophers and J.T. Hoffmann of Century College play this weekend, you can see them both at US Bank Stadium this week. Knowles and the Gophers play North Dakota State at 6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. The Gophers then play in the DQ Classic this weekend as they play Arizona at 7 p.m. on Friday. They then play Washington at 7 p.m. Saturday and UCLA at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Hoffmann, along with Branden Flock of Springfield play at 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. Thursday against Dakota County Tech in a doubleheader and then face off against Oakton College of Illinois at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Monday before heading to Winterhaven, Florida for 13 games.

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