This past weekend in Greenville, Tennessee in the NJCAA DIII Baseball World Series, New Ulmite Cole Wellmann and the St. Cloud Tech and Community College Cyclones lost their first game 9-4 to Rowan College on Saturday.

They later defeated Northern Essex 12-7 and lost to Rockingham Community College 7-6 on Monday to end the season at 20-9.

Wellmann, who graduated from New Ulm High School last year, pitched 2 2/3 innings in relief in the loss. He did not allow a run had struck out two batters.

Cyclones head coach Jason Fischer said that Wellmann, who has seen time at first base as well as on the mound, is a great kid.

“He is a hard worker and a great teammate,” Fischer said. “Even when he is not playing he is always involved in the game so from that perspective we are fortunate to have him.”

Fischer said that Wellmann has been working out of the bullpen for the Cyclones this season.

“He has been extremely reliable. He comes in and throws strikes and gets outs.”

Wellmann is 1-1 with one save. He has pitched 14 1/3 innings and has recorded 13 strikeouts.

“He has not had a lot of time at first base because we have a returning starter there,” Fischer said. “Cole has done a great job accepting his role and we could not be happier with his performance.”

Wellmann is 3 for 4 this season at the plate.

Fischer said that Wellmann does not throw the hardest but he is deceptively quick.

“We have changed his delivery a little bit and have worked with him on his mechanics.”

Fischer also said that Wellmann came up big in the Region XIII tournament against Itasca.

“He came in to pitch in our first game of the region tournament and we were struggling on the mound as well as defensively,” Fischer said. “We had scored a bunch of runs but we started to give up runs. Cole came in and did really, really well. He threw two innings for us — threw strikes and basically shut down Itasca. That really stood out for us.”

Incidentally, Wellmann’s team defeated Century College 5-0 in the third and deciding game of the Region XIII finals. Another freshman from New Ulm High School, J.T. Hoffmann was on the Century team. Hoffmann ended up hitting .377 for the Wood Ducks with 15 stolen bases and a .484 on-base percentage.

CHARGERS BASEBALL SEASON ENDS: Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s 2018 baseball season closed Thursday with a 10-6 loss to Mankato Loyola in the Section 2A tournament,.

“We put up some runs against Loyola which we were very happy about,” head coach John Gunderson said. “To be able to score six runs against them was putting us in a good position to win. Unfortunately we had too many errors and too many walks. It is just our inability to make that routine play and you have to be able to make that routine play to win in the playoffs.”

MVL ended 5-11 but that record may be deceiving.

“We lost four games this year by one run,” Gunderson said. “Those errors put more pressure on our pitchers. We preach defense before pitching. A pitcher does not have to have a perfect outing by any stretch of the imagination if his defense is playing well. But if his defense is not playing well it puts a lot of pressure on the pitcher.”

Gunderson has talent coming back in sophomores Teddy Giefer, Jace Marotz, Mason Cox and Matthew Rieger so the future is bright for the Chargers.

“Those kids all play baseball during the summer,” Gunderson said. “Those guys coming back plus having Owen Rich come back next year and having Derek Weisensel — these guys are who are definitely building blocks.”