American Legion baseball playoffs start next week
The Gopher Classic American Legion baseball tournament continued Monday, but without six teams from the Dakota County Tribune and Sun Thisweek coverage area that didn’t advance out of pool play.
Six teams from Minnesota were among the 16 to reach the single-elimination stage of the tournament, but none made it to the semifinals taking place Tuesday at Veterans Field at Minnetonka High School. The championship game was scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday. Ninety-six teams from eight states and two Canadian provinces started the tournament with pool play Friday through Sunday.
Fredrickson Field in Elko New Market was one of the pool-play sites, and host team Lakeville North won three of its five games, North’s victories were 3-2 over Lincoln (Nebraska) Northwest, 5-2 over New Ulm Gold and 9-1 over Rapid City (South Dakota) Post 320.
West Fargo, North Dakota, won the Fredrickson Field pool and advanced to the round of 16.
All six teams in the Bloomington pool at Red Haddox Field went either 3-2 or 2-3. Burnsville and Rosemount were among the teams with 2-3 records, while Bloomington was 3-2 and won a tiebreaker to advance to the knockout rounds.
Burnsville defeated Rosemount 7-1 on Friday in the Gopher Classic opener for both teams. Later Friday, Norfolk, Nebraska, defeated Rosemount 5-2 and Omaha (Nebraska) Burke downed Burnsville 5-1.
On Saturday in Bloomington, Rosemount lost to East Grand Forks 4-3 and defeated Omaha Burke 6-4. Burnsville beat East Grand Forks 8-3 and lost to Norfolk 4-2.
Bloomington defeated Burnsville 7-0 and lost to Rosemount 10-1 in six innings on the final day of pool play Sunday.
Eastview Thunder Black made a run at the pool championship in North St. Paul before finishing 3-2. The Rapid City (South Dakota) Expos went 4-0 to win the bracket. Eastview’s victories were against Chaska (18-3 in four innings), Oakdale (3-1) and North St. Paul (10-1).
Farmington, ranked second in the most recent Division I state rankings, was 1-4 in pool play at the University of Northwestern in Roseville, including an extra-inning loss to eventual pool champion Team Manitoba 17U. Team Manitoba broke a 1-1 tie with eight runs in the top of the 10th inning.
Trevor Rasmusson of Farmington was 3-for-5 and scored three runs in his team’s 13-5 victory over Papillion, Nebraska.
Apple Valley was 2-3 in pool play in Waconia. On Day 1, Apple Valley fell to eventual pool champion Fargo Post 2 6-0 and Waconia 5-1. Post 1776 rebounded Saturday with victories over La Crescent (8-2) and Aberdeen, South Dakota (8-7). Creighton Prep of Nebraska defeated Apple Valley 11-5 on Sunday.
Minnesota teams that survived round of 16 play Monday were Bemidji, which defeated Moline, Illinois, 6-5, and Prior Lake, which shut out Excelsior 3-0. But Bemidji and Prior Lake lost in the quarterfinals, leaving teams from North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Manitoba to battle for the championship Tuesday. Lincoln (Nebraska) East defeated Fargo North 5-0 in the championship game.
Most Minnesota Division I American Legion teams are in the final week of the regular season this week. Sub-State playoffs are scheduled for the week of July 22, with Sub-State champions advancing to the state tournament the following week in Maple Grove, Osseo, St. Michael and Delano.
Most Popular
Comments / 0