MILWAUKEE — Byron Buxton was getting ready to leave the dugout to head out to center field for the bottom of the sixth inning when he heard his teammate Pablo López calling his name, drawing his attention.

“Get Kep’s glove,’” López told him, referring to right fielder Max Kepler, who had grounded out to end the top of the inning.

Just as Buxton took the glove, he saw a horde of racing sausages heading in his direction, one almost about to plow into him. The Twins’ center fielder quickly darted back into the dugout, narrowly evading a collision with Brat, a running bratwurst.

“I get ready to turn around and it was like, ‘I’m going to have to take a charge if I can’t get out the way,’” Buxton said. “Luckily, he wasn’t running as fast as I thought he was.”

Sausage No. 1 was *thisclose* to taking out Byron Buxton. pic.twitter.com/UT8xOqA9a5

— Betsy Helfand (@betsyhelfand) April 2, 2024

The sausage race, which is held each game at American Family Field, started just beyond the Twins’ third base dugout. It’s different at Target Field, Buxton noted, where they also run a mascot race but the racers start in the outfield and stop before reaching the third base dugout so a potential collision with players isn’t in play.

“I’m so focused on the game, getting Kep his glove (that) I’m not worried about the outside stuff,” he said. “Kind of scared me.”

It was not lost Buxton, a longtime spokesperson for Sheboygan Sausage, that he was nearly run over by a competitor, but the Twins’ center fielder was able to laugh about the close call without his teammates after the fact.

And he definitely heard some barbs from them.

“I think it would’ve been great if he got run over by the bratwurst,” joked catcher Ryan Jeffers, standing nearby Buxton. “It would’ve been a way better story.”

Jeffers paused a beat.

“As long as he’s OK,” Jeffers said. “I mean, the bratwurst was OK.”

Which, of course, evoked an incredulous response from his teammate.

“The bratwurst? What about me?” Buxton asked. “That was a train collision because if I took one (sausage) out, I’m taking out at least two more.”

Paddack eager for start

When Chris Paddack takes the mound on Wednesday at American Family Field, it will have been 696 days since his last start. That’s nearly 700 days of rehabbing, working, waiting.

Paddack returned at the end of last season, after recovering from his second Tommy John surgery that he underwent in May 2022, and pitched out of the bullpen. But Wednesday, when he starts a major league game, it will mark another milestone — the completion of his long path back and the start of his new journey.

“It’s been quite some time since I toed the rubber to start a game,” Paddack said. “I’m super excited. All my hard work has paid off. I’ve prepared for this moment.”

Sure has.

While Tommy John surgery returns usually take about a year, Paddack’s process was lengthier because it was the second time he had required a ulnar collateral ligament repair.

He returned on Sept. 26 last year, pitching twice out of the bullpen in the regular season and then twice in the playoffs, an experience he has said changed his career. Coming out of the bullpen last year, being given just minutes to warm up, not knowing what situation he might be thrown into, simplified things for him that he hopes to take back with him as he transitions back into starting.

“I think the biggest thing, taking in from what I learned in the bullpen and (pitching coach) Pete (Maki) reminded me every start day this spring, is, ‘Go out there and be a bullpen guy for one inning at a time,’” Paddack said. “Next thing you know, you’re in the sixth. … Just going out from pitch number one and I’m throwing my best stuff. I’m not saving stuff for the second, third time through the lineup. I’m not saving stuff for the situation of the game. It’s coming out there and competing and winning every pitch.”

Briefly

Kepler returned the lineup on Tuesday after leaving Thursday’s game early and then missing the final two games over the weekend. The right fielder had fouled a ball off his leg. Kepler went 1 for 4 on Tuesday.

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The second day of Nicolae Miu’s murder trial on Tuesday was fraught with emotional testimony.

Isaac Schuman’s mother, Alina Hernandez, told the courtroom the 17-year-old was supposed to go golfing on July 30, 2022, but went tubing on the Apple River instead because his golfing buddy had to work.

Hernandez said she was drinking coffee on the deck of the family’s Stillwater home when her son told her his new plans. She told him she was hoping he’d pick up his dad from the airport later.

“He said, ‘I can pick Dad up.’ And I said, ‘No, just go have fun with your friends on the river,’” Hernandez recalled in St. Croix County Circuit Court in Hudson, Wis.

Before he left, she put sunscreen on his ears.

Just over two hours after floating down the western Wisconsin river, Schuman was fatally stabbed during a chaotic confrontation that he and others had with Miu, a then 52-year-old mechanical engineer who is also charged with stabbing and seriously injuring four others some 100 to 200 yards upstream from the Highway 35/64 bridge in Somerset.

Miu claimed he acted in self-defense after being attacked by a large group of floaters who accused him of being a “pedophile” while he was looking for his friend’s lost cellphone carrying a snorkel and goggles. Miu’s attorney, Aaron Nelson, told jurors on Monday that he was “outnumbered” and “feared for his life.”

Hernandez was the first witness called Tuesday, recalling how Isaac’s friend Owen Peloquin called her screaming that her son had been stabbed. After reaching the somber scene, she ran up into one of the ambulances, thinking it was her son “sitting up in there. I started crawling into the ambulance and I realized it wasn’t Isaac, it was one of the other kids.”

When she climbed out, she noticed Isaac by his hair, his body lying on the riverbank. “I knew it was him,” she said. “And they were trying to perform CPR on him.”

Schuman was stabbed in the torso with great force, causing wounds to his torso, chest and heart. He died almost instantly, prosecutors said Monday.

Hernandez broke down crying while describing three photos shown in court: her son’s 11th-grade picture from Stillwater Area High School, his 17th birthday and one she took of him and their dog with a trailer he bought for his business detailing cars and boats.

“He texted me and said, ‘Mom, come out and see my new trailer.’ The dog and I ran out,” she said, weeping.

The other victims — Rhyley Mattison, then 24, of Burnsville; A.J. Martin, then 22, of Elk River; and Dante Carlson and Anthony Carlson, who were both in their early 20s and from Luck, Wis. — suffered puncture or slash wounds in the abdomen or upper torso. They were taken by air and ground ambulances to Regions Hospital in St. Paul in conditions that ranged from critical to serious.

Miu is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Schuman’s death and four counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Prosecutors added a misdemeanor battery charge after the original criminal complaint against Miu for allegedly punching a woman before the stabbings.

Miu pleaded not guilty to all charges in September 2022. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

Friend started recording

Witness Jawahn Cockfield cries as he testifies during the second day of trial at the St. Croix County Circuit Court in Hudson. (Elizabeth Flores / Pool via Star Tribune)

The prosecution also called Schuman’s friend Jawahn Cockfield to testify Tuesday. Cockfield, who was 17, took two cellphone videos of the confrontation — one 9 seconds long, shortly after Miu approached the tubers, then a 3½-minute recording that shows the killing and its frantic aftermath.

In the shorter video, which was played in the courtroom, Cockfield was heard yelling: “Grown man trying to have sex with little girls! Who the hell? What the (expletive)? He’s a raper!”

Deputy District Attorney Brian Smestad asked Cockfield why he began recording. He said Miu was looking “suspicious” and “he had said a weird comment.”

“That’s kind of why I started recording in the first place,” Cockfield, now 19, said. “Because he had his snorkel, and it was like 2-feet-deep water. So, like, ‘what are you doing?’ And then he just said a weird comment, something about, like, some little girls.”

Cockfield said he called Miu a “pedophile” but didn’t touch him throughout the ordeal.

Cockfield said Miu punched a “blonde lady” who was telling him to get away, causing her group of friends to go toward Miu and “try to fight them, I guess.” The alleged assault is not on the video, but Cockfield said he was looking in a different direction while filming.

“He hit a woman?” Cockfield yelled. “He hit a woman?”

Prosecutors then played part of the video that shows the aftermath of the stabbings. Someone yelled, “What the (expletive)? He’s dying! He’s dying, bro!”

“What?! Are we serious? Is this real? Oh my God. Is this real? Is this real? Is this real? That’s not blood! That’s not blood! That’s not blood!” Cockfield yells in the video. “That’s not Isaac! Oh my God! Oh my God! This isn’t real! This isn’t real!”

Cockfield, who plays football and wrestles at St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minn., broke down crying in court. He put his fingers to eyes and dabbed them with tissues.

Cockfield said he didn’t see where Miu went, and that people stopped to help get Schuman to the riverbank. He followed.

Cockfield said he told police he had a video, and that a still frame photo of Miu was taken from it. About an hour later and a mile downstream, officers used photos to identify Miu and take him into custody.

‘Antagonizing?’

In cross-examination, Miu’s attorney Corey Chirafisi asked Cockfield if he told investigators that Miu said “anything about looking for little girls?” Cockfield said he did not, that he told them he was looking for his snorkel.

“Well, in a situation where you say he’s looking for little girls, do you think it would be important that you would tell officers that he told you he was looking for little girls?” Chirafisi asked.

“Yeah,” Cockfield said.

“But you never do that, do you?” Chirafisi asked.

“I guess I didn’t,” Cockfield said.

“Did you think it was important?” Chirafisi asked.

“I guess there were more things that were more important,” Cockfield said. “But that is important in the grand scheme. Yes.”

Chirafisi asked Cockfield if he believed telling Miu that he “can’t have sex with little girls and calling him a raper would be considered antagonizing?”

Upon questioning, Cockfield admitted he was laughing as Miu was being pushed into the water.

“After he hit a woman, I think he was getting sort of what he deserved,” he said.

RELATED: Murder or self-defense? Apple River stabbing jury to decide.

District Attorney Karl Anderson asked Cockfield in the redirect examination if he was glad he recorded the confrontation.

“Yes,” he said.

Prosecutors showed a picture of Miu facing two women, one of whom he allegedly punched, setting off the pushing and shoving and stabbings.

“What do you see behind him?” Anderson asked.

“Open,” Cockfield said.

The trial is set to resume at 8 a.m. Wednesday, and is expected to run through April 12.

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A gun was discovered Tuesday at Burnsville High School and police called in other agencies during a search for a second gun, which was not found.

The school reported at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday that they suspected two students had guns and staff had already confirmed one in a student’s backpack.

“Given the dangerous circumstances of the presence of weapons, Burnsville police officers and several mutual aid agencies responded quickly and tactically in order to ensure the safety of all students and staff,” said Carissa Larsen, Burnsville spokesperson, in a statement.

The gun found by staff was loaded and officers secured it.

Principal Jesús Sandoval wrote in a message to families there “is no evidence a specific threat was made. There was no apparent conflict between students that led to the weapon being brought to school or shown.

“This doesn’t change the fact that this was very dangerous and completely unacceptable,” his message continued. “Weapons of any kind are not allowed at school and the consequences for a student can be significant, even if there is no intent to harm others.”

Sandoval added he knew there “were concerns about potential threats on social media. Our investigation did not reveal any actual threats.”

Police took the student who had a gun into custody. The other student was briefly detained and released when no firearms were found on him. The case will be forwarded to prosecutors for charging consideration.

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Brad Larmie has been appointed the executive director of University Enterprise Labs, the nonprofit announced Tuesday.

Brad Larmie was appointed as the executive director of life science incubator nonprofit University Enterprise Labs. The nonprofit, which is located in St. Paul, made the announcement on April 2, 2024. (Courtesy of UEL)

Located in St. Paul, University Enterprise Labs is a life science incubator and accelerator that offers laboratory spaces and scientific equipment for rent for companies in the biotech, medtech, tough tech and agricultural tech fields.

In his new role, Larmie will oversee operations, investment strategy, programs and partnerships for the 150,000-square-foot facility, per the news release.

“Starting a company is really tough and finding lab space to prove out what you’re working on is even harder when you’re early into your journey,” Larmie said in the release. “I am excited to take UEL to the next level, which will allow us to increase our contribution to Minnesota’s thriving life sciences ecosystem.”

Larmie, who has a degree in biological sciences, previously held roles at Children’s Minnesota, analytical testing lab ChRi Laboratories and the pharmaceutical company Novartis.

“We have ambitious goals for UEL’s next phase in terms of our mission to foster Minnesota’s next generation of life sciences companies and support economic growth in the Twin Cities,” said Barbara Nelsen, Chair of the UEL Board, in the release. “For that, we need an equally ambitious and qualified leader. We are thrilled to have Brad at the helm of UEL.”

Located at 1000 Westgate Drive in St. Paul, UEL has over 35 wet, dry and clinical labs for scientific research and development.

Since its founding in 2005, UEL has supported more than 175 startup companies and currently has 65 tenant companies working on projects ranging from medical devices and diagnostic tools to robotics and atmospheric carbon capture.

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