Tournament notes
Tidbits from the state amateur baseball tourney
A few other items from the state amateur baseball tournament.
Region 13C
Each of the teams from Region 13C that played this weekend at the state Class C amateur baseball tournament lost their first-round game.
Before Jackson lost to St. Joseph on Sunday in Jordan, Luverne lost 10-0 to Kimball Saturday in Belle Plaine.
Fairmont had a first-round bye after winning the region title.
The Martins will play Farming at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Jordan. The Flames defeated defending champion Maple Lake 4-1 in the first round.
Farming defeated Fairmont 14-2 in seven innings in the first round of the 2002 tournament in St. Cloud.
I don’t have the answer, but 41-year-old Adam Schmidt is the only player from either team who may have played in that game. Seven players on the Fairmont roster and 16 from Farming hadn’t been born yet.
Final year
Fairmont and the other 15 region champions will have a little rust to shake off when they play this weekend as most will have basically two weeks between games after winning their region title.
Going back four years to when Fairmont won the state title, region champions hold only a slight edge in those second-round games, going 37-27.
In both 2020 and 2021 it was even with region champions winning eight and losing eight each year. In 2022, region champs were 11-5 and they had a 10-6 advantage in 2023,
This year will be the last one (for now anyway) that region champions will get a first-round bye at the state tournament.
With Class A returning after a two-year absence, the Class C field will be reduced from 48 teams to 32. The Class A and Class B tournaments will both have 24-team fields.
State no-hitters
With Chris Gumto getting a hit in the second inning Sunday, there wasn’t any late inning drama as far as a no-hitter was concerned for Joey Atkinson of St. Joseph Sunday in Jordan.
It raised the question of how many no-hitters have been thrown in state tournament history. Well, the tourney is in its 101st year and there have been 25 no-hit games at the state tournament.
Interestingly, the last two no-hit games were in the 2021 tournament and the same team got no-hit in both. However, St. Martin did win one of the games.
After a first-round bye, The Martins were matched up with Fergus Falls in the second round.
The Hurricanes held St. Martin without a hit but lost the game. Mitch Porter pitched six innings (two walks, one hit by pitch and 10 strikeouts) and Alex Koep went two innings (one walk and four strikeouts).
The only run of the game came in the sixth inning when on a walk and the runner then advanced all the way to third base on a wild pitch. He scored on a squeeze bunt.
In the third round, Matt Geislinger of Watkins no-hit St. Martin, walking three and striking out 15 as the Clippers beat the Martins 3-0.
A Jackson High School graduate and former Jackson Bull threw a state tournament no-hitter. And he did it as a drafted player.
Bill Dunker was playing for Eagle Lake in 2002 when he was drafted by the St. Patrick Irish for the state tournament.
In the third round of the tournament (at the time the final eight teams played a double elimination format) the Irish faced Pierz. Dunker allowed six walks and three runs in the no-hitter, with St. Patrick winning 6-3.
Earlier in the tournament, Dunker entered a game vs. St. Francis in relief and pitched five and two-third innings, only giving up one hit.
Dunker would later move to New Prague and began playing with St. Patrick. From 2002-2020, he played in 19 straight state tournaments.
In 2018 he was with St. Patrick when the Irish played Jackson in the first round of the state tournament in Jordan.
He retired in 2021.
Here's the year-by-year listing of Dunker’s state tournament participation:
1997: Jackson Bulls
1998: Jackson Bulls
1999: Jackson Bulls
2000: Waterville Indians (draftee)
2001: Did not participate
2002: St. Patrick Irish (draftee)
2003: Austin-Hayfield Athletics (draftee)
2004: St. Patrick Irish
2005: St. Patrick Irish
2006: St. Patrick Irish
2007: Elko Express (draftee)
2008: St. Patrick Irish
2009: Cannon Falls Bears (draftee)
2010: Hampton Cardinals (draftee)
2011: St. Patrick Irish
2012: St. Patrick Irish
2013: New Prague Orioles (draftee)
2014: St. Patrick Irish
2015: St. Patrick Irish
2016: Prior Lake Mudcats (draftee)
2017: Faribault Lakers (draftee)
2018: St. Patrick Irish
2019: St. Patrick Irish
2020: St. Patrick Irish
Former major leaguers
Anyone who stayed around the Mini Met following the Jackson-St. Joseph game Sunday had an opportunity to see two former major league players and if they were there at the very end, an unusual ending.
Corey Koskie (51 years old) plays for Loretto with three of his four sons, Bradley (24), Joshua (21) and Caleb (19).
Corey Koskie played nine years in the majors, seven with the Minnesota Twins and one apiece with the Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays.
Atwater’s roster included 63-year-old Mike Kingery, who was born in St. James. He played for six major league teams in a 10-year big league career. He played three seasons with Seattle, two apiece with Colorado and San Francisco and one each with Kansas City, Pittsburgh and Oakland.
Also playing for the Chuckers are sons David (24) and Josh (21).
Loretto won the game 2-1 in 10 innings when Joshua Koskie was hit by a Josh Kingery pitch. Caleb Koskie homered earlier in the game for the Larks.
