Trojans take second at state

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.

The Trojans finished the season winning eight of their nine games.

“Overall, our goal was to win the championship, which obviously didn't happen, but it's pretty hard to say we are disappointed in any way when we finish second in state,” NP coach Jeremy Kalal said after the tournament. “We’re so incredibly proud of these kids and excited for the group we have coming back and what they can do. We have some holes to fill for sure, but with the younger players we have, I think we will be right back in the mix for the next few years.”

New Prague’s Trystan Seger, Logan Bermel and Nikkos Patrin were all named to the alltournament team.

Dakota United 4, Trojans 2 DU opened the title game Saturday afternoon with a 3-0 lead by the fourth inning and the Trojans battled back with two runs in the second, cutting the lead to a single run.

Dakota United scored the insurance run it needed with a run in the sixth. Despite their best efforts, the Trojans couldn’t battle back.

“We came into this game knowing it was going to be tough,” coach Jeremy Kalal said.

“They are the defending state champs and they are a very solid team. We felt with our defense we could keep them from scoring a lot of runs, but we needed our offense to come out like it did in the semifinals and hit balls on the ground. We struggled offensively and hit way too many fly balls. Credit to Dakota United, they needed to play a perfect game to beat us and they did. We had our chances in the game to blow it open and we made a few mistakes that in the end cost us and they didn't make mistakes. It was a fun game to be in and a game that was a true championship game.”

Trojans 14, Burnsville-Lakeville-Farmington 4

After an offensively-challenged opening game the night before, NP’s bats came alive in a big win Saturday afternoon.

NP scored early and often, building an 8-0 lead by the end of the third inning. After the Blazin’ Cats rallied with two runs, NP came back with four more runs in the home half of the fourth inning for a 12-2 lead. BurnsvilleLakeville-Farmington fought back with two runs in the fifth, but NP iced the win with two runs of its own in the sixth inning, ending the game via the 10-run rule.

Nikkos Patrin and Carter Tupy paced NP with four hits apiece. Trystan Seger and Greysen Flaherty had three hits each. Eliot Soukup and Logan Bermel had two hits apiece in the win.

“We came in much more relaxed and looked like our team,” coach Jeremy Kalal said. “We smashed the ball all over the floor and played amazing defense, never really letting Lakeville mount any kind of threat. It felt great to end this one early by the 10-run rule and guarantee ourselves a spot in the finals. Lakeville didn't know what hit them, we had balls flying all over the place and everything that could go our way did, it was just one of those games that everything went our way.”

Trojans 9, Southern Stars 3

It took a while for the NP bats to get rolling in the Friday night, May 16, tournament opener, but the Trojans rallied from a 2-0 deficit and came back for the win over the team from Chanhassen-Chaska-Shakopee-Prior Lake. New Prague scored three times in the fourth inning, twice more in the fourth and two more insurance runs in the sixth frame.

Brady Nelson led NP with three hits. Eliot Soukup, Logan Bermel, Trystan Seger and Nikkos Patrin all had two hits in the win. Seger’s inside-the-park home run, a line drive which split the outfielders, was the kickstart NP needed.

“With the late game on a Friday night, you never really know how the kids are going to respond, and wow were we off tonight,” NP coach Jeremy Kalal said after the game. “We started very slow, way out of sorts. I think we were a little nervous and a little over-excited about the state tournament experience. We started very slow and just did not look like ourselves. We had an injury to our left fielder Ryan Swenson and another starting outfielder was unable to play so we were shifted around and things weren't normal for us so it took us some time to settle in. Luckily for us, our defense, which has been strong all year, stayed that way and kept us in the game. It took some time but our offense finally woke up and we were able to settle in a little by the end of the game. We felt lucky to come away with a win even though we know we can play way better than what we showed.”