With the July 4 holiday in the rearview mirror, many area town baseball teams are turning their focus to being in top form for the stretch drive and a spot in the Minnesota Baseball Association postseason tournaments.
In District 3B, Jordan, Union Hill, Webster and New Prague hold the top four spots. Eagle Lake was fifth in the standings last updated June 29. The top five teams receive a first-round bye in the playoffs. The fifththrough 11th-place teams will play a best-of-three series.
Riding a wave of four wins in its last five games, one of the smallest teams in the Dakota-Rice-Scott League is atop the standings heading into the holiday weekend.
Class C Veseli sits atop the DRS at 9-5 with 27½. The Warriors are the beneficiaries of wins over bigger teams, wins garnering greater points than a win over another Class C. The Warriors have two wins over Class B Shakopee and a win over Faribault, a Class A team under the Minnesota Baseball Association’s class system.
Montgomery’s town baseball team must not mind playing in the heat.
On the hottest day of the summer, the Mallards decided to play extra innings, coming through late with four runs in the top of the 11th and a 5-1 win at Webster Sunday, June 22.
Despite banging out 15 hits, the Montgomery hitters stranded 14 runners making the pitchers the stars of the show. Ted Christian worked the first 5 1/3 innings, giving up only five hits and one run and Nolan Readmond getting the win in relief, working 5 2/3 innings allowing just one hit and no runs.
As a player and later a manager, Terry Fredrickson has been connected with the Elko Express for 50 years.
Wednesday, July 2, 7:30 p.m., when the Express host their rivals from New Market, at Fredrickson Field, the Express will retire Fredrickson’s No. 12, the jersey number he wore as a pitcher and sometimes wears while leading the ball club.
After a pair of tough setbacks in the past week, the Elko Express are in an unfamiliar place – needing a victory to build momentum.
At 6-9 overall, the Express fell to Hampton Sunday, June 15, in Hampton.
The Express took an early 3-2 lead after the first inning but then saw the Cardinals tie the game in the third inning and build a 5-3 advantage after four innings.
Elko built a 10-5 lead entering the bottom of the eighth, but Hampton rallied, scoring four times in the eighth and twice more in the bottom of the ninth for the win.
New Prague High School’s boys’ volleyball ended its season in its first match in the Section 1A quarterfinals, Wednesday, May 28. No. 3 seeded Rochester defeated the No. 6 seeded Trojans, 25-18, 25-18 and 25-13 at Rochester Mayo.
“Rochester came out of the gates playing with a lot of force, serving hard and taking big swings,” said New Prague head coach Greg Sayuk. “This worked in their favor, as we adjusted to their gym, which had a lot of low-hanging beams and rafters.”
A pair of wins during the past week has lifted the New Prague Orioles above the .500 mark and into seventh place in the Dakota-Rice-Scott League.
Sunday, June 8, with the wind blowing out at Shakopee’s Joe Schleper Stadium, the Orioles and Coyotes scored a plethora of runs. The Orioles scored two runs in the first with four hits from Eric Wagner, Tom McBroom, James Fuerniss and Beau Plaisance.
The Coyotes answered in the third inning with a two-run homer by Aidan Rau.
St. Patrick kicked off the 2025 season Sunday, May 18, with a 14-3 win in seven innings over Union Hill.
With the wind blowing out to left at Bonin Field, the Irish offense took advantage in the bottom of the first inning with four home runs from sluggers Jack Friedges, Ryan Friedges, Robbie Meidl and starting pitcher Ian Segna.
In the third inning, the Irish tacked on four more runs, highlighted by a Tate Marland three-run HR. The Irish tacked on three more runs in the fifth frame and two more in the sixth.
Despite their best efforts on a course most of them have played before, the NP girls’ and boys’ golf teams saw their season conclude last week at Ridges of Sand Creek outside Jordan in the section tournament Tuesday and Wednesday, May 27-28.
NP girls The Trojans made the second day of competition, finishing third overall behind section champion Minnetonka (591) and Orono (653).
New Prague High School is sending five members of its track team to the state meet this coming week at St. Michael-Albertville High School.
Advancing from the section meet last weekend at Lakeville South High School, New Prague’s Bjorn Olson earned a state berth in the 300-meter hurdles and Adam Proshek made the state field in the high jump, both with personal record performances.
The state meet is slated for June 10-12 at St. Michael-Albertville High School.
Heading into the Section 1A boys’ lacrosse playoffs, New Prague needed a win in a big way after a tough loss the previous evening. The Trojans earned exactly what they needed with a playoff game a few days away, ending a three-game skid.
No. 3-seeded New Prague (8-5 overall) opened the section playoffs last night against No. 6-seeded Northfield. Both teams brought an 8-5 record into the game. The winner will play Saturday, May 31, against the winner of No. 2-seeded Lakeville North vs. No. 7-seeded Southwest Christian at a time to be determined at the higher-seeded team.
With plenty of offense and solid pitching, the New Prague Orioles evened their DakotaRice-Scott League record at 2-2 with a decisive win Thursday, May 22.
The Orioles will face St. Patrick tomorrow evening, Friday, May 30, 7:30 p.m., at Memorial Park. Sunday, June 1, 2 p.m., New Prague will go duck hunting when Montgomery comes to town. The Mallards ended NP’s season last fall in New Prague.
The Orioles will welcome Faribault to the friendly confines of Memorial Park Wednesday, June 4, 7:30 p.m.
St. Patrick kicked off the 2025 season Sunday, May 18, with a 14-3 win in seven innings over Union Hill.
With the wind blowing out to left at Bonin Field, the Irish offense took advantage in the bottom of the first inning with four home runs plating five runs from sluggers Jack Friedges, Ryan Friedges, Robbie Meidl and starting pitcher Ian Segna.
In the third inning, the Irish tacked on four more runs, highlighted by a Tate Marland three-run HR. The Irish tacked on three more runs in the fifth frame and two more in the sixth.
New Prague’s indoor softball team came up just short of its goal for a second-consecutive state title last weekend at the state indoor softball tournament at Chanhassen High School.
The Trojans, winners of the state floor hockey title this past winter, finished second to a familiar opponent, defending state champion Dakota United, Saturday, May 17. The Trojans topped Lakeville-Burnsville-Farmington in the semifinal game Saturday after surviving an opening night thriller against ChanhassenChaska-Shakopee-Prior Lake Friday, May 16.
Once again this summer, The New Prague Times will provide information as available on area amateur baseball teams competing in the Dakota-Rice-Scott League. DRS teams have competed locally and at the state levels for several decades. The league includes teams in New Prague, Union Hill, St. Benedict, Elko, New Market, Lonsdale, Webster, Veseli, Montgomery, St. Patrick, Shakopee, Prior Lake and Faribault. The information below was submitted by teams in response to questions previewing the DRS.
New Prague’s boys’ volleyball team had a good week. While the Trojans started with a loss against Bloomington Jefferson, Tuesday, May 13, it kept the match close, 25-17, 25-13 and 25-19. New Prague turned around and beat Chaska/Chanhassen 26-24, 22-25, 28-26 and 25-9, Thursday, May 15. The Trojans then participated in the Mound Westonka tournament Saturday, May 17, where New Prague took the Silver Bracket Championship, finishing fifth out of 12 teams.