Coon Rapids Legion Baseball

The incredible season of 2011 came to a screeching halt Saturday morning (July 23) of the 10th District American Legion baseball tournament at Wintercrest Park in Coon Rapids for the host Post 334 team when it lost 3-2 to Monticello Legion.

Because this loss occurred in the losers’ bracket — following a 4-1 opening-round loss to Cambridge, then an 8-5 win over Maple — Post 334 was immediately jacked from the season, finishing the summer with a 35-8 final won/lost record.

As was the case in the opening round upset loss to Cambridge, Post 334 batters did not hit when hits were needed. Monticello took advantage of one of Post 334’s hottest late-season pitchers, Patrick Freese — when he could not consistently find the strike zone in the first — and scored three times. Kent Sipola came on and allowed one hit over the next 5.2 innings, but the damage had been done.

Sammy Smith singled home both Post 334 runs in this game. In the second, after Bo Daniels collected a base hit and stole second, Smith came through with a two-out hit. In the seventh after his younger brother, pinch-hitter Bobby Smith, led off the inning with a bunt single and reached second on a throwing error, Sammy Smith came through with his second run-scoring hit.

But with no out and the game-tying run on first, the meat of Post 334’s order failed to produce. Two foul outs to the catcher, a hit-by-pitch, then a pop-out to the Monticello third baseman ended a season in which this team produced the program’s all-time best winning percentage — a mere .813.