Mike Latta in one of his final Post 334 at bats.

The 2010 summer season for the Post 334 baseball team ended Friday afternoon in the Nashwauk Stadium with a 9-7 loss to Duluth Lakeview in a losers’ bracket state tournament game. Post 334 finished the season with a 22-17 record.

Post 334 had been sent to the losers’ bracket less than 12 hours earlier with a loss to Eagan and  needed a win over Lakeview to stay alive. Even with late-season ace Joe Brinda on the mound, Post 334 could not get the job done, falling behind 5-1 early, then 7-5 late in the game. Alex Williams came on in relief in the fifth and pitched solid baseball to the finish, keeping Post 334 within striking distance of a come-from-behind victory.

In fact, Post 334 pulled to within 8-7 in the eighth inning on Kyle Waterman’s RBi-hit to left, but a tying run was not plated and the team went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to end the season.

Post 334 fell behind 2-0 in the first, but Jeremy Oakley tied the game with a long two-run homer to left center in the second. After a scoreless third, however, Post 334 and its pitcher Dougie Pouliot were rung up for five runs. An error on a double-play ball, a couple of seeing-eye ground ball hits through the left side and a hit batter all ganged up to put Post 334 into a hole from which it could not get out the rest of the game.

Post 334 subsequently dropped into the losers’ bracket and will face Duluth Lakeview at 10 a.m. on the Nashwauk field Friday morning.

The win, claimed in seven innings via the 10-run rule, also gave the Post 334 team a second-round winners’ bracket match-up at Al Nyberg Field against Eagan at 7:30 p.m.

But it did not come automatic, nor easy at first. Playing before its home town crowd, Hibbing actually took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third on a two-out double. Post 334 was subsequently forced to regroup and countered with the six-run outbursts with some nifty base running by Bo Daniels, who scored on a pitch — in the dirt — that slipped 20 feet away from the catcher, then a couple of key hits by Mike Latt and Sammy Smith, a sacrifice fly by Kirk Funfar.

In the sixth, Latta launched a two-run homer over the left-center-field fence and on the next pitch Brandon Flippen followed with a shot over the right field barrier to make it 9-1. Two more runs were plated after the mammoth home-run blasts and allowed relief pitcher Alex Williams to close out the game with a perfect top of the seventh.

Williams picked up where starter Ian Andrews left off after five innings. Andrews, who gave up just five hits, but walked six, finished with 11 strikeouts.

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.

Excelsior, which is scheduled to face Eden Prairie for the 10th District championship Sunday afternoon, took advantage of a pair of one-out walks, then three straight hits to score the first four runs of the game. By the sixth, Excelsor had constructed a 6-0 advantage  before Post 334 awoke from its slumber and scored three runs with no one out.

A run-scoring single by Brandon Flippen, followed by a bases loaded two-run single by Jeremy Oakley quickly cut the deficit in half and left runners on first and second without an out.

But that was as far as Excelsior allowed Post 334’s rally to extend: three runs. A pop out and consecutive strikeouts ended the inning.

Post 334 will now faced the Chester Birds (Benilde St. Margaret’s Legion entry) in a win or season-over game Sunday, 9 a.m. back at Veterans Field in Minnetonka.

Righty Joe Brinda won a second-round pitchers' duel.

A six-run eighth-inning rally carried the Post 334 American Legion baseball team from a 2-1 deficit into a 7-2 lead and eventual 7-3 victory in the second round of 10th District play at Veterans Field in Minnetonka.

Behind right-hander Joe Brinda, Post 334 took a 1-0 lead into the seventh after Josh Slappy Jensen singled home Sammy Smith from second in the second. Brinda, however, was tagged by a two-out, two-run ground rule double in the seventh that quickly overturned the 1-0 lead and changed it into the 2-1 deficit.

Brinda righted himself and finished the game by pitching a perfect eighth, then a solid ninth, though he gave up a single and run-scoring triple. In between his teammate generated a one-out bottom-of-the-eighth rally that started when shortstop Tony Remund was hit by pitch and Mike Latta walked. Brandon Flippen tied the game with a single into the right-field corner before Jeremy Oakley a ball into left field that took a crazy bounce by the Fridley outfielder to the fence.

Oakley had a triple and Post 334 a two-run 4-2 lead.

But that was not all.  Smith picked up his third hit of the game — a run-scoring double — to make it 5-2 and after Bo Daniels singled, designated hitter Luke Hite doubled home two more runs to cap the rally.

Brinda, who gave up seven hits and just one walk, threw 113 pitches for the complete, nine-inning game. He also struck out five Fridley batters.

For more photos by Alan Williams of the game check out:  http://www.machineautomationproducts.net/transfer/2010_legion_baseball/Minnetonka%20Fridley/

Pouliot was tagged for a single, then a two-out, run-scoring double in the bottom of the ninth before the game ending by inducing a third-to-first — Joe Brinda-to-Brandon Flippen — ground out to secure the victory. In retrospect, Pouliot was supported by solid defense throughout the game and one big inning at the plate by his Post 334 teammates.

In the third, Coon Rapids sent eight batters to the plate and scored four runs after two were out. A single by Bo Daniels, followed by a two-out hit batter put runners on first and second. Mike Latta then singled home one run, Flippen doubled home another and two runs were pushed home by Jeremy Oakley, who also singled.

But for offense, that was it in this game. The Post 334 order produced only eight hits in nine innings.

Pouliot more than made up for the dearth of his team’s hitting. In addition to the three hits he gave up, the lefty afforded St. Francis three walks, while striking out four batters. He needed just 121 pitches to complete the nine-inning job.

Courtesy of Alan Williams:

http://www.machineautomationproducts.net/transfer/2010_legion_baseball/Jamestown2010/

3-1 in the final game of the annual Jamestown tournament Sunday afternoon. The victory gave Post 334 tournament record and the mythical title.

Like Post 334 did against Saskatoon the day before, it pulled out the wooden bats to play Regina and managed seven hits. Two of the hits were off the bat of Tony Remund, including an important last-of-the-sixth, two-out, RBI double that

Alex Williams

turned a tight 2-1 game into a little more comfortable 3-1 margin.

Post 334 scored one in the first on Mike Latta’s sacrifice fly and took the lead for keeps in the hitrd hwne Remund walked, was bunted to second by Latta and scored on Brandon Flippen’s hit. In the sixth, Remund drove home Bo Daniels, who had drawn a one-out walk, from first with the insurance run.

Ben Roseth pitched the first three innings, but had to work out of trouble in each. A double play in the the top of the third enabled him to leave with the score tied 1-1. Williams came on in the fourth and gave up just three hits, while striking out four. He, too, relied on defense — a double play — to keep Regina at one run.