In celebration of the new Minnesota Baseball Association website, the Board of Directors is offering a chance for your team to win a two-hour instructional session with Tony Oliva. All fans, players, family members, and friends of official MBA teams are encouraged to register-the more who register for your team, the better your chances will be. The prize-winner will be contacted on July 14th!

The Hutchinson Huskies play the 2007 Class C fourth-place finisher - Winsted - tonight at 7:30 p.m. All-Star pitcher Corey Trick will get the start. It should be a good game - the Wildcats have an excellent roster of - hopefully they all show up.

The Huskies should get back three starters tonight after the team played shorthanded last weekend in Victoria. Evan Kohli, Luke Klitzke and Justin Juergensen are expected to play. Brooks Albrecht likely won't play until next week.

Hutchinson only has 12 games left, so get out and watch the team.

The next six (five at home)

Here is the roster for the North Star League South All-Stars, which includes Hutchinson's Corey Trick, Tim Thode, Justin Juergensen and Luke Klitzke.

Pitcher Kyle Messner is an alternate for Sunday's game, which is scheduled for 4 p.m. in Maple Plain. A home run derby will take place at 3 p.m. (the two finalist - Klitzke and Justin McKinley of DC are both in the game).

Jersey # Player Team Postion ERA Average
1 Brent Opsahl D-C 3B .458
9 Eric Hanson D-C P 2.35
14 Justin McKinley D-C SS .375
15 Brent Muckenhirn Delano P 1.20
1 Tim Sonnek Howard Lake 3B .341

Only in Chicago

From the Twins:

After starting out the JO National Tournament 3-1, Northern Lights finished 4-4 to place 18th.

Here is how the three MN teams fared:
10th place: MN Select 5-4, 16-18
17th place: M1 5-3, 17-14
18th place: Northern Lights 4-4, 18-15

You can read more about each day of the competition here:
http://www.midwestvolleyball.com/nlj/nljhome.htm

Pool results:
http://www.advancedeventsystems.com/results.asp

Round play:
http://www.advancedeventsystems.com/results.asp

Here is the site to see how the Hutchinson volleyball players are doing at the JO National Tournament in Dallas.

Right now, Brittany Stamer is playing for the 18-1s. They are 1-1 after Day One. She plays for Northern Lights.

http://www.advancedeventsystems.com/results.asp

Later on, Mackenzie Piechowski, Kayla Tronick, Jessica Zieman and Brianne Stamer will be playing. Former Hutchinson player, Ashley Murtha, who has transferred to Eastview in Apple Valley, is on the Northern Lights 15-1s.

Kevin Anderson does a great job each day with a recap as well on his blog.

The first annual SCSU Baseball Prospect Showcase Combine will take place at 9 a.m. on Saturday, August 16. The Showcase Combine will be held at Dick Putz Field in St. Cloud, and it will be the start of the brand new Husky Wood Bat Fall League.

The Showcase Combine is intended for the student-athlete in grades 9-12, who is interested (and planning) on playing baseball at the collegiate level. The Showcase Combine will also include a scrimmage.

Hey blog fans~

You have an opportunity to come check out the VFW 15s team (I help coach this squad) at 6 p.m. tonight at Veterans Memorial Field. We play Arlington and we're 4-4 on the season.

We're also at home Saturday in a doubleheader with Glencoe at 1/3 p.m. (but I was told last night that it might be 11/1).

How about those Huskies last night? Note to teams in the future, this team gets a bit angry following a loss. See Delano (10-1) and Maple Plain (11-1) for evidence.

The St. Cloud River Bats are hosting a meet and greet event with all River Bats coaches and players at Buffalo Wild Wings on Saturday, June 28 from 12pm to 1pm.

This event is open to the public, giving all fans the opportunity to get autographs, eat lunch with the team, and ask questions of their favorite River Bats players and coaches.

Reservations are not required. For more information please contact the River Bats office at 320-240-9798 or visit on the web at www.riverbats.com.

If you're like me, summertime means nights at the ball field. That has definitely been the case the past 10 days or so, and it doesn't seem like it will let up until next week.

Case in point (my life) from last week:
Monday: Practice with the VFW 15s that I help coach; Caught the last two innings of the Legion game with Plato.
Tuesday: Drove an hour or so for a 9-6 win over Sleepy Eye for the VFW 15s
Wednesday: Caught the Maple Lake/Huskies game at VMF....good first six innings, tough seventh inning.