When the championship baseball game was on the line last week in the Junior League Central Region Tournament held at Fort Wayne, Ind., Josh Koenig was there calling the balls and strikes.
Koenig, who is also Rainy River Community College’s head baseball coach, was selected for the second time in three years as an umpire for the 10-team tournament, which included state Junior League champions from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Missouri as well as the host team, St. Joseph, Ind.
From Aug. 6-10, the umpires worked in four-person crews for the initial games and six-person crews for the two semifinal games and the championship game.
Leading up to the final three games, Koenig worked first base once, second base once and third base three times.
He was then selected to work second base for one of the semifinal games. For the Junior League Central Region Championship game, Koenig was selected from out of a group of eight umpires to work home plate, from where he also umpired two years ago in the 2009 title game.
“It was truly an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to work with such a great group of umpires and be able to give back to the game of baseball and the kids,” Koenig said.
In this year’s championship game, Ohio defeated Michigan, 8-6, to advance to the Junior League World Series in Taylor, Mich.
