New Ulm Sports Central - Preserving and Sharing New Ulm Area Sports History

Written by Bill Nelson

The great play that everyone in Gaylord is talking about came on Saturday, August 29th in the Cannon Falls-Elrosa game. Cannon Falls had taken an early 2-0 lead and looked in control with their ace pitcher and manager Keith Meyers on the mound.

It got to be the ninth inning and Meyers in his 11th State Tournament, struck out the first batter and everyone thought it was over. Then Elrosa showed why the game is played. Ethan Vogt singled and Pat Illies hit a home run to tie the score. After two more singles, Meyers pulled himself and put in Robert Burr. Meyers went to left field and Burr got the Bears out of the inning.

In Elrosa's 14th inning, it was Pat Illies again as he led off with a single. Steve Mueller dropped a nice sacrifice bunt down the third baseline that Rich Burr, the Cannon Falls third baseman fielded and threw to first for the out. This is where things started to get interesting. No one from Cannon Falls had gone back to cover third and when Illies saw that he took off for the bag. Burr tried to make it back and catch the throw from the first baseman at the same time. He deflected the ball and it bounced over to the third base dugout. It looked like Illies would score easily. He hadn't counted on Meyers-Keith had hustled in from left field to back up the play. He picked up the ball and threw Illies out by two strides at home. In the bottom half of the inning, Luke Winchell singled and Rich Burr hit a walk-off two-run home run. It is the first time in the Meyers reign that Cannon Falls has won two games at the State Tournament.

In the pressbox, everyone wondered where Meyers had come from. "That play should be required viewing for every Little Leaguer," commented Fred Roufs, State Board member.

"It's more about ambition and hustle than knowledge...it's just, rather than standing around, go do something. You never know when the ball is going to come through a fielder and you're going to pick it up and throw a guy out," said Meyers.

Keith Meyers, 30, has played with Cannon Falls since he graduated from the high school in 1997. He has been a player-manager since 2004. He's changed the way things get done there and it shows. "We try to keep young players around-we were losing some young players to some other teams and we wanted to keep them around and give them an opportunity to win a position," he explained. "The local high school coach Bucky Lindow, does a great job. The program is fundamentally sound from the ground up," stated Meyers.

Meyers had pitched the first eight and a third innings, giving up just the two runs in the ninth. When you watch him you get the feeling that he is a very intense guy. After he gets an out, he paces off the mound starting toward third and ending up halfway between second the mound, before he hunches his shoulders, tucks in his jersey and licks his fingers on the way back to the pitcher's rubber. Then he's ready to challenge the hitter again. "In the past I might have stayed in the game," he said, "but I made the decision that I wasn't going to lose the game with Robert on the bench, the way he's been pitching this year."

Now, for the first time since Meyers has been the manager, the Bears have won their first three games at the tournament. They beat Brainerd 2-1 in the first game and the St. Cloud Snappers 4-3 (12 innings) in the third game. The two-time all-tournament pitcher is one of the reasons, but he points out that veterans like Rich and Robert Burr, Taylor Pagel and Matt Klein have had a lot to do with their success. Meyers says it also helps to play their tough league schedule (Red Wing, Miesville, Dundas, Northfield, Hastings, Randolph and Hampton all twice) to help the young players realize that "if they stay within themselves everything will be fine."

Meyers has been to every State Tournament since he started playing except for 2001 and 2006, both years that the tournament was in Red Wing and Miesville. He talked about 2006-"I had to golf that August, it wasn't very fun." He's not golfing now. He's looking forward to playing Hanska on Friday night and having the time of his life