Four Class A amateur baseball leagues in Twin Cities merged into Class B

The Minnesota Baseball Association board approved a merger of Class A and Class B amateur teams at a meeting Saturday in St. Cloud.

This will put the four Class A leagues in the Twin Cities — Park National (Minneapolis), Riverview (western suburbs), Skyline (northern suburbs) and St. Paul — into the Class B field in 2023, which will be the MBA's 100^th state tournament.

The Twin Cities leagues became largely independent in 1987, and conducted a Class A tournament separate from the MBA's that takes place in outstate Minnesota locales.

There were 32 A teams this past summer and roughly the same number assigned to Class B by the MBA.

The Twin Cities leagues will be remain as separate regions, as will the previous four B regions. They will not be merged in postseason play until the MBA's state tournament that lasts for three weekends, starting in mid-August.

The expectation is Class B will go from a 16-team tournament (with double-elimination for its final four) to a 24-team single-elimination playdown.

The Class C tournament runs simultaneously, with a 48-team field.

Also Saturday, Mike Sticha from St. Patrick was added to the MBA's nine-person board, replacing the retiring Joe Kreger from Green Isle.

PATRICK REUSSE

Heather Weems, who has been St. Cloud State's athletic director for the past 10 years, on Thursday was named commissioner of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. Weems replaces Josh Fenton, who left the NCHC to become commissioner of the Summit League.

Weems will start her new job on July 6 and has familiarity with the conference, which includes St. Cloud State as one of its eight members. She served as chair of the NCHC Athletic Council in 2021-22 and has been a member of the NCHC's Student-Athlete Well-Being Task Force since its formation in 2019. During her tenure at SCSU, the Huskies won three Penrose Cups as NCHC regular-season champions and advanced to their first NCAA Frozen Four championship game in 2021.

RANDY JOHNSON

Defenseman Carson Lambos, who was with the Wild for most of training camp, was named the captain of the Winnipeg ICE after he was returned to the Western Hockey League. Lambos, 19, was selected by the Wild in the first round (26th overall) in the 2021 NHL draft.