Hibbing Legion takes care of Post 239, 8-0

VIRGINIA—Monday night’s American Legion baseball game between Hibbing and Post 239 was a tale of two teams trending in opposite directions.

For Hibbing, it was a solid outing for a team seeking their fifth straight win after Post 222 spent the weekend cleaning up at the Ely Legion Midsummer Classic.

For Post 239, it was a contest where the home team came out flat, struggled to throw strikes and couldn’t produce runs, something that has been plaguing the squad for the last couple of weeks.

In the end, both teams continued on the trends they were already on as Post 239 fell to Hibbing on their home turf, 8-0.

After the contest, Hibbing head coach Logan Radovich had nothing but positives for his squad.

“I think, honestly, this is some of the best baseball I’ve seen during my coaching career with Hibbing,” Radovich said. “If we keep up the way we’ve been playing, I think we can make a nice run here come playoff time.

“I like the stretch that we’re on. This is five in a row for us now and if we keep playing the way we have been lately, good things are going to happen.”

Post 239 skipper Jamie Lindseth, understandably, had nearly the opposite reaction.

“It was flat. Just flat,” Lindseth said. “I thought that was very uninspired baseball. We had walks, some really interesting missed plays, some errors and then we couldn’t get the hit when we got guys on base.

“It was one of those days. Hibbing didn’t make any mistakes. They put the ball in play and they took advantage of our lapses. You gotta tip your cap. They came ready to play today and I’m not so sure we did.”

Hibbing took advantage of a Post 239 lapse early on. With Griffin Dosan on the mound, Noah Sundquist reached in the leadoff spot with a walk. On an attempted pickoff throw to first, Dosan missed the mark to his first baseman and Sundquist took off, making it to second safely.

A fielder’s choice from Dane Mammenga moved Sundquist over and the runner came in to score on a sacrifice fly from Dakota Kruse, 1-0.

Logan Gietzen got the nod to start for Post 222 and gave up a lone hit to Dosan in the first inning but there was no harm, no foul as Hibbing took the lead into the second and started to pile on.

With one out, Luke Nelson singled up the middle and then was joined on the bases when Kadin Augustin singled to right. Beau Frider then enjoyed a walk to load the bases up.

A squeeze bunt from Gavin Lamphere brought the runner in and the other two runners came in shortly after when Sundquist singled to right, 4-0.

Gietzen put Post 239 down in order in the second and Post 222 continued to make things click offensively in the third.

Kruse started the frame with a single to right field that turned into much more very quickly. An error from the right fielder spelled disaster for 239 as Kruse was able to take second, third and then home plate to score the run on the mistake, 5-0.

Hibbing then was able to manufacture a run without any errors to aid them after. Gietzen took a walk, moved to second on a routine play during the next at-bat and then took third on a fielder’s choice shortly after.

Gietzen managed to come home and score thanks to an RBI triple from Augustin, making it a 6-0 game in Hibbing’s favor.

The next inning and a half was quiet from both sides as Gietzen and Dosan locked in on the mound but Dosan’s time came to an end in the fifth. He started the inning off by giving up a triple to Kruse before walking Gietzen, prompting Lindseth to make the change.

Harley Mott got the call to finish the game with runners on first and third with no outs. With the deck stacked against him, he limited the damage and got three outs over the next three batters, with only one runner coming in to score on a sacrifice fly from Nelson, 7-0.

Gietzen continued to cruise in the bottom of the fifth and Mott faced the minimum in the top of the sixth.

Post 239 had some activity in the bottom of the sixth with Mott singling to right with one out. Tyler Reid at the plate, Reid singled to right-center field and Post 239 tried to take advantage of the moment, sending Mott home on what was bound to be a close play.

In the end, Mott came up just short with the catcher Lamphere tagging the runner clearly out before home plate, saving Hibbing’s shutout and denying Post 239 even one run as a consolation prize.

Post 222 tacked on one more run in the top of the seventh, starting the frame with a ground rule double from Mammenga as the ball one-hopped over the left-center fence. Two outs later, Jack Bautch scored the runner with an RBI single to left.

In the bottom of the seventh, Gietzen put the Post 239 batters down in order 1-2-3 to end the game, giving Hibbing the 8-0 victory.

With Post 222 getting the jump on Dosan early in the game, Radovich said after the game that his squad did a much better job against that specific arm compared to their game played earlier this summer.

“He threw against us the first time we played and I think we did a much better job at the plate against him today,” Radovich said. “We didn’t help him out at all and we never let him regain his confidence. We had hits all the way through the lineup.”

When it came to his pitches Dosan and Mott, Lindseth said it was a split decision on the pair.

“I thought Harley threw well considering the situation he was put in,” Lindseth said. “He only gave up the two runs. Griff, it just wasn’t working. He was trying too hard. You could tell he was trying to throw strikes and maybe forcing it a bit and it just wasn’t his day on the mound unfortunately.”

While finding ways to win is always a plus, Lindseth says the lineup has undergone some changes and will likely look different again come playoff time.

“We’re in a lull right now and we have one game to figure some things out. We’re trying to give kids reps to see what we’ve got so part of it is lineup consistency. When playoffs hit, I’ll have to make that decision on where we stand and things will look different when we get there.”

“We want to win but we’re also trying to look at the bigger picture for the guys we have coming back in the spring. Traditionally, despite the ups and downs, we’ve made a run in the playoffs in the summer so that’s our hope moving forward.”

Of his own pitcher, Radovich had nothing but praise for Gietzen.

“He threw great for us on the mound today and the defense was there behind him. There’s not much more you can ask for. He threw all seven innings and stayed under 100 pitches.

“We have a busy week ahead of us and only burning one arm in one game … that’s ideal. Saving arms right now is key for us with what the rest of our week looks like.”

For Post 239, Lindseth hopes the players on the team can find a way to jumpstart themselves.

“There’s only so much a coach can do, only so many ‘rah rah’ speeches I can give. At some point, you need to pick yourself up and pick your teammates up. Give your teammates a smack on the back, get the chatter going and play baseball. We’ve strayed away from that.”

With a strong Monday night game following up the strong weekend his squad had, Radovich said the goal is to keep that going as playoffs approach.

“The big thing is that the guys are starting to have fun. We were short handed this weekend but they accepted that challenge and played some really great baseball.

“Moving forward, we have to stay even keel the whole way, don’t get too high or low. The big thing is seizing the opportunities we have. I know early in the season we were struggling to get hits with guys on and we were throwing the ball around and making some errors. We’ve cleaned that up over the last few weeks and it’s nice to see. Hopefully that continues for us the rest of the week.”