Coon Rapids Legion Baseball

The 2012 summer roster:

ty — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:18:12 +0000

1 Tyler Kelm, infielder, 2013 graduate
(Undecided)

4 Casey Waterman, infielder, 2012 graduate
(Signed by Luther College, Iowa)

7 Luke Peterson, infielder, 2012 graduate
(Committed to Anoka Ramsey CC)

8 Alex Aase, pitcher/outfielder, 2012 graduate
(To attend UM-Duluth)

9 Anthony Mrosla, catcher, 2013 graduate
(Undecided)

10 Bobby Smith, shortstop, 2012 graduate
(Signed by Jamestown College, N.D.)

12 Kent Sipola, pitcher/outfielder, 2011 graduate
(Signed by Jamestown College, N.D.as a sophomore)

17 Alex Boxwell, outfielder, 2014 graduate
(Undecided)

18 Grant Farley, pitcher/outfielder, 2013 graduate
(Undecided)

19 Pete Anderson, catcher/utility, 2013 graduate
(Undecided)

20 Jake Bruner, pitcher/utility, 2013 graduate
(Undecided)

23 Alex Green, pitcher, 2013 graduate
(Undecided)

24 Jake Sederstrom, utility, 2012 graduate
(To attend University of North Dakota)

25 Cody Herrmann, pitcher, 2012 graduate
(Signed by Jamestown College, N.D.)

27 Alex Wojociechowski, pitcher/first base, 2012 graduate
(Signed by UM-Duluth)

32 Logan Shore, pitcher/infielder, 2013 graduate
(Verbally committed to the University of Florida)

xx Noah Fedje, pitcher/outfielder, 2013 graduate
(Undecided)

Former Post 334 right-hander Beam is headed to the Maryland Terps

ty — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 13:33:38 +0000

Former Coon Rapids High School and Post 334 standout right-handed pitcher Cody Beam expects to play with the University of Maryland Terps beginning fall semester.

Beam, who spent one season with the Central Arizona and this season with the Des Moines Area Community College teams — both Division I nationally ranked JUCO programs — over the past three seasons, made his intent known late Tuesday night, April 17. A hard-thrower who again, this season has been clocked in the 90-mph range, Beam sported a 4-4 record with 37 strikeouts in 37 innings pitched through April 15. He had an earned run average of 5.35 and one shutout in 10 appearances.

Courted by a number of Division I programs, Beam was recruited by University of Maryland coach Eric Bakich, who is the youngest head coach at any BCS school in the country. Bakich has a remarkable record of recruiting and developing elite talent. In the last 10 years he has coached 73 players that have been selected in the Major League Baseball draft, including 25 in the first five rounds and nine first-round picks.

While an assistant coach/pitching coach at Vanderbilt, Bakich recruited and coached David Price, the No. 2 overall pick in the 200 draft and the Tampa Bay Rays pitcher who finished second in the voting for the 2010 Cy Young Award. Maryland has five drafted players on its roster this season: seniors Sander Beck and Alfredo Rodriguez, sophomore Tim Kiene and freshmen Andrew Amaro and K.J. Hockaday.

Jamestown is becoming “CR West”

ty — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:13:42 +0000

Jamestown College in North Dakota is fast becoming a post-high school home away from home for Post 334 Legion baseaball players.

This season former Post 334 second baseman/center fielder Sammy Smith is a freshman member at Jamestown College, which is a northern plains NAIA national power. Smith, who is a member of the Jimmies’ junior varsity squad at this point in the season, is expected to be joined next year by former Coon Rapids High School and Post 334 Legion club teammates Cody Herrmann, Kent Sipola and his younger brother, Bobby Smith. All three players committed earlier in the winter to the Jamestown program under the direction of veteran coach Tom Hager.

Herrmann, a tall right-handed pitcher and potential power-hitting first baseman, and Bobby Smith, a shortstop, are both Coon Rapids High School seniors and Sipola is a first-year member of the Anoka Ramsey Community College pitching staff, who is also slotted to play in the outfield this spring. Sipola, who graduated from Coon Rapids High School with Sammy Smith, was a Lions All-Star series player last June.

Bobby Smith, Sipola and Herrmann all return to the Post 334 American Legion team this summer. Bobby Smith and Herrmann both are eligble to play after their first season at Jamestown College, too.

Gopher Classic 2012: Post 334 at Bloomington’s Haddox Stadium

ty — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:04:34 +0000

The groupings for the 2012 Gopher Classic American Legion baseball tournament, which will involve a new record 85 teams from throughout the country, were released prior to Thanksgiving week. This event not only remains as the largest American Legion baseball tournament in the country, but may now be one of the largest elite youth-level (of any age group) baseball tournaments anywhere.

Defending champion Post 334 of Coon Rapids will be involved in pool play July 13-15 at Bloomington’s Red Haddox Stadium and will face the challenges presented by Farmington, DePere, the Calgary Redbirds, Bemidji and site host Bloomington Gold. The game schedules and starting times will be announced at a later date.

The 2012 tournament features three teams from Canada, including the Redbirds from Alberta and about a dozen teams from the Dakotas, including for the first time both Rapid City squads — Post 22 and Post 320. Also involved in the tournament are several teams from Montana, Nebraska and Missouri and the Napoleon, Ohio team, which like Post 334 program, is the only other program to have won the Gopher Classic championship twice.

New rule to alter the ALB landscape

ty — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 20:56:43 +0000

A new rule making an American Legion baseball an activity for newly graduated high school 12th-graders and athletes in the grades below, will take effect nationwide with the start of the 2015 summer season.

This landscape-changing mandate means that college freshman, who turn 19 after Jan. 1 of the new year, will no longer be allowed to play American Legion baseball after the 2014 season. Consequently, American Legion baseball will become a program for high school-age athletes only.

The rule was passed during the national [American Legion] baseball meetings earlier this month. First to feel the impact of this change will be members of the class of 2014. Specifically, players coming into the program as sophomores next summer [2012], who won’t turn 19 after the first of the year in 2015, will be denied a fourth season of competition.

Ironically, the Minnesota Department of the American Legion did not allow college freshmen to participate in American Legion Baseball until the middle 1990s. Up to that time only high school-age players were allowed to play Minnesota Legion baseball, while the rest of the nation allowed young college freshmen, who had turned 19 after Aug. 1 of the new year.

The Post 334 squad had six college freshmen on its 2011 summer roster, but will have just one in 2012.

Ahead: tourney schedule takes shape

ty — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:16:27 +0000

The Post 334 baseball team has committed to play in five tournaments during the 2012 summer season, including the nation’s largest American Legion event, the 85-team Gopher Classic of which it is the defending champion. The tournament schedule:

• The Marshall Mid-Summer Classic — June 15-17
• The Hauschild Memorial, Brookings — June 22-24
• The Post 22 Firecracker — June 29-July 4
• The Upper Midwest Classic, New Ulm — July 5-8
• The Gopher Classic, Twin Cities — July 13-17

Two of the five tournaments are wooden bat events — at Marshall and Brookings. Also — to be determined later this fall — is the addition of another tournament between the Post 22 Firecracker in Rapid City, South Dakota and the Gopher Classic. Post 334′s status as a regular member of the North Hennepin League or as an independent will be determined this fall as well.

Shocking end: Post 334 upset and boosted from the summer of 2011

ty — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 02:43:14 +0000

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.

Back even: Post 334 prevails 8-5

ty — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:19:42 +0000

Brandon Flippen drove in three runs with three hits Friday morning (July 22) to keep Post 334 alive in the 10th District American Legion tournament at Wintercrest Park in Coon Rapids.

The team now heads into third-round play Saturday morning on the East field at 9 a.m. against an opponent to be determined later.

Flippen’s contribution, coupled with a run-scoring double by Ian Andrews and a strong combined pitching effort by Logan Shore and Willie “The Turk” Heiser, enabled Post 334 to make up for its 4-1 opening-tournament loss to Cambridge and beat Maple Grove 8-5.

Shore, who scored four of Post 334’s runs, pitched six innings scattering eight hits while striking out 10. He had to overcome an overheating issue during the early stages of the game, but came back strong before handing the ball over to “The Turk.”

In his typical New Jersey, mobster-like manner, “The Turk” gave up a couple of runs, but only three hits over the game’s final three innings. A five-to-three double play started by Flippen at third base in the eighth when Maple Grove had runners on first and second an no out, proved to be one of the game’s biggest defensive plays.

Stunned: Post 334 was upset in its opening district game 4-1

ty — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:30:29 +0000

Cambridge Legion scored three runs in the last of the eighth inning Thursday afternoon to break a 1-1 tie and ultimately hand Post 334 a 4-1 defeat in the first round of 1oth District tournament play.

Post 334 took a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning, but gave up a tying run on passed ball with two out. After squandering a bases-loaded, one-out chance in the top of the eighth, Post 334 was victimized by a misjudged line drive to left that resulted in a double, a one-out single to score the tie-breaking run, then a two-out throwing error allowed two more runs to score.

There was little the team could do against Cambridge starting pitcher Cole Bakke, who made the right pitches at the game’s right moments. Despite allowing runners in scoring position in five of the first seven innings, then the bases-loaded situation in the eighth, Bakke magnificently survived until leaving the mound in the top of the ninth.

Post 334 starter Alex Aase also pitched well through seven innings, but was well up in his pitch count when he departed with the score tied 1-1.

The loss knocked Post 334 into the 10th District losers’ bracket of this double-elimination tournament. The next game is Friday morning at 9 a.m. against Maple Grove.

Shore was Gold Medal Games MVP

ty — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 14:34:09 +0000

Logan Shore of Coon Rapids and a member of the Post 334 American Legion baseball team, had a Gold Medal Games baseball tournament to remember last week in Florida. Competing against international competition in the 16-18 age division for Team USSSA, Shore finished with a .500 batting average, earned the win over Canada and the win over Puerto Rico. The second win helped Team USSSA capture the Gold Medal and Shore the tournament’s most valuable player award.