The third annual Military Appreciation Night at Johnson Park Wednesday night was another huge success as over 300 fans attended the Tomahawk East League game between the New Ulm Brewers and the Leavenworth Orioles.

Last year approximately 250 fans attended.

Last year, 99 veterans received a free meal while Wednesday night, 111 veterans got a free hamburger or cheeseburger, french fry and beverage courtesy of the New Ulm Baseball Association.

A big thank you goes out to NUBA Concessions Chairman LeRoy Flor and all of his volunteers, who worked in the very busy concession stand not only Wednesday but all season.

Thanks go to guest PA announcer Casey Lux, who did an awesome job in the game handling all of the items that needed to be announced each inning and to Joe Eckstein, who got the pictures of the veterans who were honored with their pictures on the video scoreboard each inning.

And to Leanna Fluegge for singing the National Anthem and God Bless America.

Thanks also go out to Kyle Marti and Jodi Marti and Schell’s Brewery and to the New Ulm Legion Color Guard, the New Ulm Battery and the Legion Riders.

But most important, Thank You to all of our veterans for your service.

STADE DRAWING ATTENTION

With the Major League Baseball Entry draft just two weeks away — July 12 and 13 in Philadelphia, I started checking on New Ulm’s Ethan Stade’s draft projections.

One website read “Ethan Stade, a standout left-handed pitcher, is widely regarded as an intriguing prospect for the later round of the MLB Entry Draft.”

It continues “he features a fastball that tops out at 91.8 miles per hour and is currently pitching for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the MLB Draft League. Following a highly successful redshirt senior season at Bowling Green State University, Stade established himself as one of the nation’s premier pitchers.”

Stade logged 103 strikeouts over 64 innings, averaging 14.5 strikeouts per nine innings which ranked fourth nationally.

Stade was named All-MIAC First Team.

In the MLB draft league he has posted a 0.00 ERA early in the league including a five strikeout scoreless outing over three innings.

“Because he transferred from a DII school (Minnesota State-Mankato) his rapid rise and elite strikeout numbers this spring has drawn considerable attention from MLB scouts.”

Some of you may remember an amateur baseball game on May 22, 2025, at Mueller Park while pitching for the New Ulm Brewers against Bird Island, the left-handed Stade set a record when he struck out 26 of 27 Bullfrogs hitters, with the only non-strikeout coming on a leadoff groundout to first to start the ninth inning. It was also a game where Stade recorded an immaculate inning (three strikeouts on nine pitches).

HARRISBURG, LUVERNE POUR ON PITCHES

In a game in the Junior Upper Midwest Classic last weekend, a record for pitches thrown in a game may have been set when the two teams combined for 206 total pitches in a seven-inning game.