And Post 334 was granted another week of summer baseball — at state
The summer season for Post 334 was in limbo early evening Sunday, July 25 after a split in its final 10th District games at Minnetonka’s Veterans Field, a situation that was shrouded in dark clouds until minutes before the 10 o’clock hour.
In its final two 10th District tournament games, Post 334 defeated the Chester Birds 9-6 in the morning, then lost its finale to Maple Grove 11-6 in the afternoon. The split left Post 334 with a 3-2 tournament record and its future in the 2010 summer season at the mercy of an outcome between Excelsior and Fridley — the final 10th District game of the day.
Post 334 needed an Excelsior win to garner the No. 4 representative’s spot for next week’s State American Legion tournament in Hibbing. Earlier in the day Eden Prairie finished as the undefeated 10th District champion and the No. 1-seeded representative to the state tournament. Maple Grove, meantime — by virtue of its win over Post 334 — snared the No. 3 representative’s position.
Shortly before 10 p.m. — after playing 11 innings of baseball — Excelsior consummated the deal of an incredible comeback to beat Fridley 12-11. Excelsior, which subsequently earned the No. 2 spot for the state tournament, trailed 8-0 at one point in the contest, but tied the game with a grand slam homer in the top of the eighth, then won it by scoring a run in the top of the 11th.
In the aftermath, Post 334 earned the No. 4 spot, even though it shared a 3-win, 2-loss record with Fridley. The second-round victory Post 334 posted over Fridley ultimately turned out to be the deciding factor of which team advanced and which team’s season ended.
Post 334 now opens state tournament play, Thursday, July 29 against host Hibbing in the Hibbing Stadium. A full schedule of games will be listed by July 26 or by checking out the Minnesota Department of the American Legion official web site.
Before any of this was possible, though, Post 334 had to win its early Sunday morning game against the Chester Birds.
In that contest, right-hander Brandon Flippen continued his strong showing on the mound even though at 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning he did not have his best stuff. Even so, Flippen was able to hold the Chester Birds (Benilde St. Margaret’s Legion team) to just two runs and five hits through seven innings. He left with a seeminging safe 7-2 lead
Flippen’s mound successors, Alex Williams and Willie Heiser, however, were tagged for four runs in the top of the eighth to close Post 334′s lead to a not-so-safe single run, 7-6.
This was countered in the last of the eighth when Mike Latta singled in one run and Jeremy Oakley — who had four consecutive hits in his previous at bats — was able to get home another insurance run via a sacrifice fly to make it 9-6, a score which Joe Brinda made stick with a perfect ninth-inning, close-out relief performance.
Post 334 finished the game with 14 hits, including two very big hits contributed by Dougie Pouliot, the first baseman for the game. Pouliot singled home one run in the fourth, then doubled home two more in the fifth when Post 334 scored four times to take charge in the contest.
In the second game of the day, Post 334 fell behind Maple Grove 2-0 by the third, but pulled to within one run when Kyle Waterman singled home Kirk Funfar in the top of the fourth. In the fifth, Heiser — Post 334′s starting pitcher — was pulled from the game after expending considerable energy by working out of early jams. Those, who followed the big guy to the mound in relief, however, were roughed up even more to the tune of seven runs to make it a 9-1 game.
Post 334 made it interesting by scoring four in the seventh with Flippen and Oakley collecting RBI-hits and Joe Brinda a two-run doubles, but that only closed the score to 9-5. Maple Grove scored two in the seventh to make it 11-5 on the way to an 11-6 win and a trip to the state tournament.
Just under four hours later after Excelsior’s win over Fridley, Post 334 realized its state tournament trip dream, too.
Posted: July 25th, 2010