File photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Mitch Bockenstedt delivers a pitch during a Tomahawk East League amateur baseball game against St. James on June 24 at Johnson Park.

NEW ULM– All season long, the New Ulm Brewers have been ranked in the top 10 in Class B by the Minnesota Baseball Association after a reshuffling of teams bumped them up from Class C last off-season.

And after rolling through the new District 8B tournament, the Brewers earned the right to test the waters for the first time in the Class B State Tournament.

The Brewers, 21-5 on the season, will face the Princeton Panthers of the Eastern Minny-North League on Sunday, Aug. 24 at 4 p.m. in Hutchinson.

Princeton, the third-place team out of District 1, advanced to this game with a 7-4 win over Plato in the first round of the state tournament.

The Brewers, champions of District 8, had a first-round bye.

“We have played pretty consistent all season,” Brewers manager Al Flor said. “We had a little lull in the middle of the season when we did not play great baseball. But in amateur baseball, it is sometimes hard to keep playing consistent baseball because you have some regular players not there for some games. But towards the end, our players have been more consistent towards the end of the season.”

Flor said that there has not been a big difference between Class C to Class”B during the regular season.

“But once you get to the state tournament, there is.” he said. “But during the regular season, no not really. You still have to play every day, and depending on who is pitching, it does not matter. It is still a baseball game,”

This season in the Tomahawk East League, the Brewers played four very good Class C teams in Hanska, Lamberton, Leavenworth and Courtland.

All four qualified for the Class C state tournament this year.

Hanska, Leavenworth and Courtland all won their first round games, with Courtland the top ranked team in Class C all season.

Coming into the start of this season, the Brewers were ranked in the top 10 in Class B in the preseason polls and stayed there all season despite being a Class C team last year.

“We have performed at a high level and we have stayed there all year,” Flor said.

One of the reasons that the Brewers have had success this season is the performance of the “Core Four” pitching staff of Mitch Bockenstedt, Ethan Stade, Wade French and Tate Becker.

This season each of them have been consistent.

Stade struck out 26 of 27 batters against Bird Island, Bockensted threw a no-hitter, French has been a stalwart in the playoffs and Becker has proved to be one of the best young pitchers in the area.

“We have a pretty good pitching staff going,” Flor said. “We have pitchers with a ton of experience and some young kids picking it up at the end of the season. It has been a pretty good year considering we were not quite sure about the pitching staff at the start of the season. We had to spread out some pitchers because Stade was then pitching at Minnesota State and then going to the Northwoods League [with the Willmar Stingers] — we have had to piece some things together, but it has been a good surprise. They have done very well.”

Flor felt that Stade’s 26-strikeout performance on Friday, May 23 against Bird Island — a team that won their first game last weekend in the Class B state tournament — set the tone for the Brewers for the season.

Just over a month later, Mitch Bockenstedt fired a no-hitter and recorded 19 strikeouts in a shutout win over St. James.

French twice late in the season came through with clutch performances, and Becker is what Flor calls the shining bright star coming up.

“Hopefully he can learn from those other pitchers,” Flor said as the Brewers make their seventh trip to the state amateur baseball tournament.

“The experience helps — it takes away the bright lights and I think that we will be alright,” Flor said.

He said Princeton is a solid baseball team.

“They pitch well and have good defense and we will have to play a good game to beat them,” Flor said.

Flor said that as of Wednesday, he is planing on starting Bockenstedt against Princeton.

“We are still waiting to hear about Stade for the tournament — we need to know if he can work things out with [Bowling Green University, which has started the fall baseball season] to see if he can get back,” Flor said.