New Life Academy Dominates Bethlehem Academy Baseball Tournament

There were no thrilling finishes in Saturday's Bethlehem Academy baseball tournament games at Bell Field

The two-time defending State Class A Champion New Life Academy Eagles landed at Bell Field on Saturday and cruised to 14-4 and 10-0 wins. The Eagles defeated Byron 14-4 and Bethlehem Academy 10-0. BA rolled over Byron 23-9 in the first game.

It was a beautiful day to be at the ballpark. The only weather challenge was the wind.

I spoke with one of the New Life assistant coaches after their victory over the Cardinals and said they might be poised for a three-peat. His reply was, "We're very young."

The Eagles do have an eighth- and ninth-grader on the team, but four seniors are back to try to win their third straight state Class A title.

In the first game, of which I only caught the tail end, Bethlehem Academy came out of the gate swinging the bats, according to head coach Scott Hanson.

It was a very long game with some pitching changes and walks. The Cardinals had nine hits and one error and the Byron Bears six hits and three errors.

Peyton Glenzinski started the game for Bethlehem Academy, and a couple of other people showed what they could do on the hill.

In the Byron game, New Life jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and sent 11 men to the plate in the second to take a 8-1 lead.

Sophomore Nick Splinter started the game for Byron and settled down after those first two innings.

The Eagles pounded out 10 of their 18 hits in the first two frames.

New Life hero in last year's state title game, Brad Goulet, had a nice day at the plate with a pair of hits and was on base every time he came to the plate. The senior had an RBI triple, a single and scored four runs.

Goulet had the single to plate the winning run in the eighth inning of last year's state title game at Target Field against Springfield 6-5. In 2014, the Eagles defeated previously unbeaten New York Mills 5-4 in the championship.

New Life Academy came into the Faribault tournament with a 3-2 record.

Junior lefty Henry George pitched the entire game for New Life and had three hits -- two singles and a triple -- two RBI and three runs scored along with a steal of third base on a double steal in the third inning.

Senior Simon Killeen tallied three hits and was on base five times with two RBI. Junior Aaron Bouillon had three hits and three RBI.

Only one Eagle batter failed to collect a hit and every batter was on base at least once.

Byron scored three runs in the fifth to extend the game when they were down 11-1.

Junior Austin Rolandson started the inning with a walk, after an out, No. 8 and 9 hitters for Byron Nick Banfield and Jake O'Husky were hit by pitches to load the bases. Junior Caden Blazing stroked an RBI single and junior Kyle Hicks had a two RBI double.

Byron could only get two more hits after that point, but head coach Larry Franck was pleased with the team extending the game when it could have been easy to simply say, "it's not our day" and go home early. With the loss Byron fell to 2-3

In the New Life Academy win over Bethlehem Academy they plated two runs in the first inning again.

The Eagles took advantage of a nervous Cardinal freshman throwing his first varsity game, Zac VanThomme. The game started with a walk and RBI double and the second run scored on an error.

New Life Academy would add a run in the second, five in the third and two in the fourth to secure the early trip home to Woodbury.

VanThomme threw 66 pitches and worked 2 2/3 innings, 32 of the pitches were strikes. He struck out two and walked seven batters and five of the eight runs that scored were on base by a walk.

Eagle pitcher Simon Killeen allowed just four Cardinal hits.

Isaac VanThomme had a leadoff single in the second inning but Killeen struck out two of the next three batters and the other flew out to center.

Bethlehem Academy had back-to-back singles in the fourth by Peyton Glenzinski and Kollin Hanson to start the inning.

Ben Jandro came to the plate and hit a fly ball to deep center and Glenzinski tagged up and advanced to third and Hanson got picked off trying to get back to first base for the second out and Killeen got a strikeout to end the threat.

The Cardinals are 4-2 and go to United South Central for a Gopher Conference game Monday.

The game will be broadcast on Power 96 Radio 95.9FM.

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