Coon Rapids Legion Baseball

The summer baseball season officially came to an end for the Post 334 baseball team July 24 on the Wintercrest East field when it lost a wild 11-10 game to Osseo in the losers’ bracket of the 10th District American Legion tournament.

Shortstop Tony Remund hit a two-run homer earlier in the contest to keep Post 334 within a half dozen runs — 9-3 — but aside from that blast the bats were cold and Osseo was rolling at a high offensive clip. Solid relief pitching by Benny Roseth, then Will “Crazy Legs” Heiser and Joe “Bruno” Brinda, however, stymied the Osseo attack and the Post 334 bats went to work in the later innings to quickly close the gap to 10-8. Heiser contributed two key hits during the comeback — his first two hits on his fourth and fifth swings of the season!

Still, it was a 3-run deficit when Post 334 came to bat in the top of the ninth inning, but a walk issued to Jeremy Oakley and a single by Ian Andrews put runners on first and second. Doug Pouliot pinch-hitting for Brinda, who could not bat because of a broken left [glove] hand, subsequently picked up his first hit of the season to load the bases.

This was followed by a one-out single by Luke Hite to score Oakley and Andrews and leave the potential game-tying and go-ahead runs on first and second. At that point, though, Osseo brought in its relief ace, who got his team out of the jam with a strike out and ground out.

The loss was Post 334’s second straight in 10th District play and left it with a 14-19 regular-season finish — its first losing season in more than 35 years of American Legion baseball play. It was also the second straight year Post 334 had bowed out of the 10th District tournament in two straight games.