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.

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.

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.

THE 10TH DISTRICT TOURNEY

DAY 1 Thurs 7/21
SITE #1 Coon Rapids Wintercrest Fields – West
9:30 AM         game 1    Eden Prairie        vs    Maple Grove
12:30 PM       game 2    Cambridge        vs    Coon Rapids
3:30 PM         game 3    Edina        vs    Buffalo
6:30PM          game 4    Cooper        vs    St Louis Park

SITE #2     Wintercrest Fields – East
9:00 AM        game 5    Osseo        vs    Hopkins
12 Noon         game 6    Monticello        vs    Fridley
3:00 PM        game 7    Excelsior        vs    Mora
6:00 PM        game 8    Wayzata        vs    Centennial

DAY 2  Fri July 22
SITE #1    Coon Rapids Wintercrest Fields – West
9:30AM        game 10    W1        vs    W2
12:30PM      game 12    W3        vs    W4
3:30PM        game 14    W5        vs    W6
6:30PM        game 16    W7        vs    W8

SITE #2    Wintercrest Fields – East
9:00 AM        game 9    L1        vs    L2
12 Noon        game 11    L3        vs    L4
3:00 PM        game 13    L5        vs    L6
6:00 PM        game 15    L7        vs    L8

DAY 3 SAT July 23
SITE #1 Coon Rapids Wintercrest Fields – West
9:00 AM        game 17    W9        vs    L14
Noon              game 18    W11        vs    L16
3:00 PM        game 21    W10        vs    W12
6:00 PM        game 22    W14            W16

SITE #2    Wintercrest Fields – East
9:30 AM        game 19    W13        vs    L10
12:30 PM      game 20    W15        vs    L12

NOTE: TIME OF GAME AND OPPONENT ON SUNDAY

MAY CHANGE AFTER COMPLETION OF SATURDAY GAMES.

(To avoid-if possible-teams playing a second time.

A blind draw will take place for teams in games 23,24,25.

DAY 4 SUN JULY 24
SITE #1    Coon Rapids Wintercrest Fields – West
9:00 AM        game 23    W17        vs    L22
Noon              game 26    W21        vs    W22
3:00 PM        game 27    W23        vs    W24
6:00 PM        game 28    W25        vs    L26

SITE #2    Wintercrest Fields – East
9:30AM          game 24    W18        vs    L21
12:30PM        game 25    W19        vs    W20

Winner Game 26 will advance to state Tournament as Seed #1 from District 10
Winners of game 27 and 28 will advance to State Tournament
If winners of 27 & 28 met previously – winner will go as #2 seed, loser as #3 seed
If winners of 27 & 28 have NOT met previously – #2 team will be one sho allowed least number of runs per innings played in the District 10 Tournament

If Eden Prairie (State Host Team) finishes either 1,2, or 3 in Dist 10  we will send a 4th team.
#4 team will be between the losers of GM 27 & 28; via our tiebreaker format-(if met previously-winner goes, if not met previously, the team allowing least number of runs per innings plays in tournament)

Along with the win came a tournament championship.

Consequently, Post 334 finished perfect in four tournament games with two wins over Jamestown Post 14, another over Devil’s Lake and another over Fargo Metro to boost its regular-season record to 34 wins and 6 defeats. It now heads into 10th District play this weekend on its home park at Wintercrest in Coon Rapids.

In the tournament finale, Post 334 took on a very determined, upset-minded team which two days earlier in the first round of play it had beaten 16-3 in five innings.  In this rematch for the title, Post 334 took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but fell behind 2-1 until the third when it scored twice on a triple by Tony Remund, a double by Anthony Mrosla and a single by Alex Wojciechowski.

The Jamestown team countered with two runs of its own —  a two-run homer over the right-field barrier — but that was it for runs yielded on this sultry mid-afternoon on the North Dakota Prairie in Jack Brown Stadium, though at the time Post 334 trailed 3-2.

Cody Herrmann came on in relief of starter Kent Sipola — as was planned in this regular-season finale — and shut the door over the remaining innings. The tall right-hander, however, had to work out of a last-of-the-sixth bases-loaded, no-out jam. Two of the outs were literally plucked by Wojciechowski at first. He  speared a line drive headed toward right field, then stepped on first for a double play. The inning-ending out came a moment later on a ground ball to short.

Post 334 had tied the game 3-3 the inning before on a run-scoring single by Wojciechowski, then did not go on the attack again until the top of the eighth when Wojciechowski reached on an error. Eventually, the lanky all-around Post 334 player was in position to score from second when Sederstrom singled.

Post 334 stopped Devil’s Lake 17-3 in the first game of the day behind the three-hit pitching of Willie “The Turk” Heiser in five innings, then hooked up against the team, Fargo Metro, that had dealt an early summer season defeat in the Marshall tournament.  Not only was it a rematch of that game played in mid-June, but also against the same ace pitcher, David Ernst, who has since been drafted by the Chicago Cubs and has signed to play this fall at North Dakota State University.

Ernst held Post 334 batters hitles through the first three innings, but in the fourth shortstop Tony Remund ripped a one-out, opposite field line drive off the right-field fence for a double. He scored moments later when Anthony Marosla single to pull Post 334 from an early 1-0 deficit into a 1-1 tie.

Alex Wojciechowski followed with a double that put runners on second and third and still with one out Brandon Flippen sliced an opposite field shot at the feet of the left fielder, who was handcuffed on the play. The ball scooted by him and Flippen had a double and Post 334 two more runs for a 3-1 lead. Flippen later singled home Remund from second with the team’s final run in a 4-1 win, Post 334’s 15th straight win.

Meantime, pitcher Alex “Bambi” Aase prevailed in another showdown against an ace pitcher. He finished with a four-hitter and five strike outs. Earlier in the week, Aase won a duel against Tri City ace Max Knutson 2-1 in the semifinal round of the Gopher Classic.

While Post 334’s championship round foe was not going to be determined until later in the evening, Post 334 individuals picked up top honors in the series of skills challenges, including the home run derby won by Flippen. Remund won the distance throwing contest and Bo Daniels won the timed base-running title by circling the bases in just a little over 14 seconds.