On July 7th, the Argonne Post 32 American Legion baseball team entered sub district play in Luverne. That evening they played the Luverne team and ended up losing after the opposition jumped on the board in the first inning. The first four runs from that inning were enough to win the game.
On Saturday the Legion team played two games, first against HL-O, and later against Fulda. Our team imposed the ten run rule in each of these games, ending them early and moving on into district play.
Friday July 14th the Second District tournament kicked off with Adrian playing the team from Springfield. The game was tied at one for most of the game when Springfield put four on the board in a bad inning for Post 32. Landon Rogers had the lone Adrian run in the game. Errors on base and walks made an Adrian bid for the win impossible. Alex Loosbrock took the loss with Skylar Polzine pitching very well in relief.
The tournament continued on Saturday, with Adrian playing the Windom squad. Post 32 put four runs on the board early and held Windom scoreless. Landon Rogers started the game off with a triple and Jake Stamer scored Landon on a fielders choice. In the second inning Alex Loosbrock reached base on a Windom error followed up by a Brent Hokeness sacrifice to score Alex. In the third inning Jake Stamer would reach base on a single only to be picked off at second. Nick Harder singled and Zack Loobrock hit a fly out to the outfiled allowing Nick to tag up and score. Mitchell Wagner reached base on balls followed by an Alex Loosbrock single. Mitchell Wagner scoring on a Windom error would be the last point the Adrian team would add to the board. Jake Stammer pitched the entire game earning the win.
Sunday’s game pitted our young men against the hometown team from Blue Earth/Winnebago. Blue Earth/Winnebago jumped out with four runs in the first inning and it seemed like that would be enough to secure a win. Their pitcher was throwing knuckleballs that the Adrian guys kept popping up when they could make contact and held the Adrian team hitless through the first five. Adrian did get one hit in the sixth, but the outcome seemed obvious until Adrian bats found their rhythm in the bottom the seventh inning and the game on the line. Post 32 players earned six hits when it mattered the most and quickly scored the five runs needed to win the game in the comeback. In the bottom of the 7th with the Blue Earth/Winnebago team ready to go home with the win the Adrian players dug in and gutted out an inning to be proud of. Mitchell Wagner reached base on an error followed by a Zack Loosbrock double putting Adrian runners on second and third. Alex Loosbrock would pop up and Brent Hokeness stepped to the plate with one out on the board. Brent slapped a hit to the short stop but an error in the throw to first gave Hokeness the hit and scored Wagner. Zach Hendel then hit a single to score Zach Biermann who was a pinch runner for Zack Loosbrock. Ryan Wieneke hit a fly ball out to left field that was caught for the second out. Jeffrey Cauwels stepped to the plate and smacked a single scoring Brent Hokeness making the score 3-4. Landon Rogers kept the Adrian rally going with a single scoring Zach Hendel to tie the game with two outs. Nick Harder stepped to the plate and singled. Mitchell Wagner gave the Adrian team the hit they needed with a walk off single to win the game and move on to stay alive to play the following weekend. Nick Harder and Landon Rogers shared pitching duties.
The American Legion only has two classes in their tournament; towns below 10000 population and cities above. The performance of the Argonne Post 32 team and the size of the community that we draw from is impressive, to say the least. Once the team steps in to District play there are few left that we would compete with in the high school league.
Congratulations to Argonne Post 32 baseball players and coaches! You have already done your community proud. Good Luck Next Weekend!
