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

Posted June 9, 2011
By Jim Bastian - Journal Sports Writer (sports@nujournal.com) , The Journal

Former New Ulm High School standout Nate Van Roekel experienced the dream of a lifetime when his Winona State University baseball team played in Cary, North Carolina for the NCAA D-II World Series championship against West Florida this past weekend.

But even through the result was not what VanRoekel and the WSU baseball team wanted [a 12-2 loss] it was still a game and a season that VanRoekel will remember for a lifetime.

"It was pretty incredible," said VanRoekel, who went 2-for-4 and scored a run in the title game.

"It was by far the biggest stage that I have ever played on," he said. "Having the TV there [if you have Direct TV you can see replays on Channel 613 in the future] and playing in the beautiful ballpark. There were a lot of fans there for both teams -it was great."

VanRoekel, who played second base in the title game, had started the season at that position for the Warriors, but lost his position early in the season.

"I went into a slump and they put a younger player there and got hot,"he said. "We split time at second base - I would play three out of four games there."

VanRoekel, who ended up hitting .326 with 31 runs scored, 46 hits, 12 doubles and 19 RBI, said that he was surprised by the team's success but also was not surprised by the 42-18 mark posted by Winona State.

"There were times that we played like we could make it to the D-II World Series and then there were times when we played like we would not make it to our regional," he said. "We went 0-2 at both Wayne State and Mankato but after that we really clicked - our team really got on a roll. We got back to the basics. School was done and we could just focus on baseball. We got hot and played like we could."

He said that the poor showing on the field was due to the players wanting to have a good showing off the field - in the classroom.

"That was right during finals,"VanRoekel said. "We take pride in our academics to - I think that a lot of us were stressed out because of that. We had a lot of games during finals and that is stressful with finals, presentations and getting papers in."

VanRoekel, who is a junior majoring in mechanical engineering, will be interning next year in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

He said that next year he may see a position change and be switched to the outfield.

"We have a lot of young infielders,"VanRoekel said. "We lose all three outfielders and I have played outfield before and they want to try and find a spot where I can play full time.

"I take pride in my baseball but I also take pride in my academics. It is how hard you want to work that makes you what you are," he said.

Note: See the COLLEGE WATCH column as the lead article on this website for comments and other stats plus the capsule reports on Nate's entire season as recorded by New Ulm Sports Central.