, 
, 
The Luverne Junior American Legion baseball team entered Sunday’s championship game of the Southwest Sub-State Tournament undefeated after besting Blue Earth, Lamberton, and St. James earlier in the tournament.
A win against St. James in the noon game at Redbird Field would send the team to the Minnesota Junior Legion Baseball State Tournament.
A Luverne loss would cause a second game between the same two teams with the winner advancing to the state tournament.
In the first game, Luverne came up just short, losing 3-2 in an extra inning contest.
St. James controlled much of the second game and won 6-1, earning a trip to the state tournament and ending Luverne’s season.
“We had a good season as a whole,” said Jared Pick, Luverne Junior Legion head coach.
“We won quite a few games and played real well in the playoffs, getting one game away from state. … The main thing is we got better as the season went along.”
Luverne 5, St. James 1
Luverne remained undefeated in the Junior Legion Southwest sub-state tournament by defeating St. James 5-1 Tuesday, July 20, at Redbird Field in Luverne.
St. James, considered the home team in the contest, scored first, plating its only run of the game in the bottom of the first inning.
Jacob Stroh started the game on the mound for Luverne and pitched well for the victors, giving up only one run and striking out eight batters in 5 1/3 innings of work.
Kaden Anderson came in to relieve Stroh for the last one 1 1/3 innings, giving up no runs.
Anderson led the offense for Luverne with three hits and two runs. Riley Sneller had two hits in the game and scored once.
Connor Connell and Stroh also plated runs for Luverne.
Box Score
Luverne 0 1 2 1 0 1 0 5
St. James 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
AB R H
Sneller 4 1 2
Anderson 4 2 3
Serie 1 0 1
Connell 2 1 1
DeBoer 2 0 0
Halverson 1 0 0
Domagala 3 0 0
Stroh 3 1 1
Ossefoort 3 0 0
Buss 4 0 1
St. James 3, Luverne 2
Entering Sunday’s championship game at Redbird Field, Luverne and St. James had played twice during the season with each team winning once.
It took an extra eighth inning to determine the better team after neither team scored in the scheduled seven innings of the noon contest.
When St. James scored three runs in the top of the eighth, Luverne had to answer with at least that many to keep the game going and avoid a second game the same day.
Stroh opened the inning for Luverne by reaching base after he was hit by a pitch. The next two Luverne batters were out.
Stroh advanced to second after Sneller hit a single. A very timely double by Anderson then scored both Stroh and Sneller to bring the score to 3-2 with two outs.
Walks issued to Will Serie and Connell then loaded the bases. A pop-up foul by Zach DeBoer caught by St. James was the third and final out for Luverne, stranding three runners on base and ending the game.
Missed opportunities were the story of the game for Luverne.
“We took advantage of errors and walks to get a lot of guys on base, but we didn’t get the key hits or get the runs across the plate,” Pick said.
In fact, Luverne left 16 runners on base during the game.
Connell had a very solid pitching effort, giving up no runs and striking out eight batters during seven innings on the mound before he reached the 105-pitch count limit for the day.
Austin Ossefoort and Kai Buss both pitched for Luverne during the eighth inning with Buss getting the final three outs.
Box Score
St James 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3
Luverne 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2
AB R H BI
Sneller 2 1 1 0
Anderson 3 0 2 2
Serie 1 0 0 0
Connell 2 0 0 0
DeBoer 3 0 1 0
Hein 1 0 0 0
Domagala 3 0 0 0
Stroh 1 1 0 0
Ossefoort 1 0 0 0
Kroski 1 0 0 0
Halverson 1 0 0 0
Buss 3 0 0 0
St. James 6, Luverne 1
It was a true, winner-take-all championship game when Luverne and St. James met for the second game Sunday at Redbird Field.
The winner would be champion of the Junior Legion Southwest Sub-State region and advance to the state tournament in Montevideo.
The game remained scoreless until the third inning when Luverne scored its only run of the contest.
Buss hit a double and advanced to third base when a Sneller hit was caught by the second baseman.
Anderson was hit by a pitch to put Luverne runners on first and third bases.
Buss scored when a pitch to Serie got away from the catcher to put Luverne up 1-0.
St. James, playing as the home team, scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
When they scored one more in the sixth and held Luverne scoreless in the top of the seventh inning, St. James won the championship and earned a trip to the state tournament.
“They are a good team,” Pick said. “We played them four times this year and only won once.”
Box Score
Luverne 1 8 0 2 2 0 0 1
St James 0 0 1 0 1 0 x 6
AB R H BI
Sneller 4 0 1 0
Anderson 2 0 0 0
Serie 3 0 0 0
Connell 2 0 0 0
Hein 3 0 0 0
Stroh 3 0 1 0
DeBoer 3 0 0 0
Sudenga 2 0 0 0
Kroski 1 0 1 0
Buss 3 1 1 0