Both the New Ulm Legion Gold and the New Ulm Junior Legion Gold had successful seasons that saw both teams qualify for DI State Tournament berths.

The Legion Gold, under head coach Curt Forbrook, went 19-14 and won their 35th Second District title.

“I think that maybe we went a little farther than we thought we could go,” Forbrook said. “But in our last 20 games we went 14-6, so that shows how we finished our season.”

And Forbrook agrees that this team was one that flew under the radar for most of the season.

“We did not start good (5-8), but once we put it together we were a pretty good team,” he said.

Forbrook said that there was a stretch in games where errors cost them games.

“And at the end of the season, our pitching and defense was what kept us in games,” he said.

Coming into the Sub-State 2 tournament, Gold was seeded fifth behind Mankato American, Mankato National, Marshall and New Prague.

“We talked about that (before the tournament) and we used that for motivation — we felt we were better than that,” Forbrook said. “But in talking to other coaches, our sub-state has to be one of the toughest DI sub-states in Minnesota.”

At the state tournament, the Gold, who went 3-2 at state, played both Hastings and Grand Rapids twice because of the bracket set-up.

“In the past few years it has been pool play and before that straight double-elimination, but now this year they went to a college format. And I did not like the way it was set up — I could see there being some tweaks in that. You should not play five games and play just three teams.”

Gold lost to eventual state champion Shakopee and went 1-1 to eventual runners-up Grand Rapids.

“So our two losses were to the champions and runners-up in the tournament, so if you add it up we were one win away from a regional berth,” Forbrook said.

Catcher Kyle Albrecht finished the state tournament as an All-Tournament player.

Next season, Gold can return five “super seniors” in Jake Finstad, Colin Anderson, Elliot Schabert, Kolton Achman and Ben Alfred if they chose to come back.

Gold will lose Ethan Thompson, Logan Mielke, Blaine Olson, Caleb Forstner and Matt Schommer, who “aged out.”

“On paper we should look pretty good for next season with players back and players coming up from the (24-5) Junior Legion, a good (19-7) Silver team, plus our 13 and 14 year old teams were solid,” Forbrook said. “There is some good stuff coming up for New Ulm baseball. This group was the best group of kids that I have ever coached.”

A lot of the Gold’s help comes from a solid Junior Legion Gold team that went to their second straight state tournament under coach Mike Anderson.

“We were consistent all season,” Anderson said as his team defeated Bloomington and had losses to Eden Prairie and Excelsior in the state tournament. “We maintained a level of compete and consistency all year — we were solid one through 13 of our players.”

Anderson said that this year they went to a bracket-style format.

“It is like the high school state tournament, but they did not seed the teams,” he said. “I think if they would have seeded it, things may have been different — us having to play Eden Prairie and Excelsior having to play Bayport. Those two match-ups in the first round — those were the top four teams in the state. If they would have had the normal double-elimination style with our pitching depth — we had a lot of pitching depth.

“If the state had been set up like it was in the previous years where it was double-elimination and you could come back (in the losers bracket), by Saturday afternoon I don’t know if there would have been anyone who could have been able to roll out the same pitching that we had left.”

Anderson agreed with Forbrook that there is a lot of baseball talent coming up the pipeline for New Ulm baseball.

“There is no end in sight — we have raised our level of expectations of what we want and the players are the ones who done it — they have raised our level of compete,” Anderson said.