Springers
make it 2 in a row in 2001
Written for 2002 State Tournament Program
By Tom Elliott
St. Cloud Times
Second
verse, same as the first.
The Cold Spring Springers’
Class B state championship repeat in 2001 sounded a whole lot like their title
in 2000.
Andy Bulson ended up being
the MVP for the second straight year. This time around, he won four games on
the mound, pitched 34 innings, struck out 27 and walked six.
Truly, there were a lot of
potential MVPs for Cold Spring in 2001, which won six games in the tournament’s
final three days to capture the title.
"I think they (the
state board) had trouble picking an MVP (in 2001)," Hinkemeyer said.
"Ron Terres and Josh Loesch lit it up. Gabe Dahl
was 12-for-15 at one point in the tournament and Steve Huls was a really good
candidate."
There was some sentiment
for Huls, son of former Springers player/manager Bill Huls, winning the MVP
award. He was back for his first year with the Springers after spending five
years in the Minnesota Twins organization, reaching Class AA ball in
Cold Spring opened the 2001
tournament with a 10-9 victory over Waseca. It was even more difficult than the
score indicates. The Springers trailed 7-0 before rallying to win. Then came a tough, fall-from-ahead, 11-8 loss to the host Red
Wing Aces in the tournament’s second round. Cold Spring led 8-6 going into the
ninth, when Red Wing slugged a two-run homer to tie it, then a three-run homer
to take that lead.
That sent the Springers
into the losers bracket, where they pounded Prior
First, Cold Spring beat
Next came a 13-6 win over
Red Wing, clearly one of the key victories over the weekend. The Aces were
hosts and led 6-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth. But Cold Spring scored
10 runs to break it open.
Game four of the weekend
that never seemed to end was a 9-7 victory over the Rochester Royals, who had
finished runnerup to Cold Spring a year ago. The game
was tied 7-7 in seventh when Josh Loesch smacked a
two-out double to put the Springers up.
The Springers would get a
crack at another state championship. All they had to do was beat the Austin
Greyhounds twice on Labor Day Monday.
"I felt a lot better
about that one," said Springers first baseman/designated hitter Matt Butala. "When we played
In Game 1, Bulson dominated
in a 7-0 victory over his hometown, tossing a two-hitter.
In Game 2, Cold Spring
jumped out to a 4-1 lead after four innings. Loesch
smacked a two-run homer. Bulson started Game 2 and went five innings to pick up
his fourth tournament win. He became the 10th pitcher in the tournament’s
78-year history to earn four pitching wins.
"He was amazing,"
Hinkemeyer said of Bulson, "simply amazing."
Cold Spring finished 39-8
and added the seventh state championship title to its impressive amateur
baseball resume. That’s the second most in state history behind the eight won
by
"We just got on a roll,"
Hinkemeyer said. "We got hot. When you get that feeling, you feel like you
could play forever before you lose. One thing I remember is that Dave Schlangen and Zach Femrite pitched as well as they did all
year in the state tournament. Those two got us into the championship."
Rod Schafer and Dahl did
most of the catching. Darren Heying mostly played first with Butala. Russ Huls, teamed up with his brother Steve for the
first time since Steve was in high school, to give the Springers outstanding
middle infield play. Steve Taylor also played some second and Jason Spohn was a key utility man, as was Mark Keul.
Ron Terres played third,
batted third and was one of Cold Spring’s spiritual leaders.
The outfield included Ben
Griffin in left, Dahl or Bulson in center and Loesch
in right. Dwight Kotila got a few swings in as an
outfielder as well.
The pitching staff was
deep. Bulson and Todd Steil were the Springers’ top
two starters. Femrite and Schlangen, however, got
numerous important wins.
All that was left now was
to see if the Springers could win three in a row.