The Alexandria Legion baseball team split its first two games of the state tournament yesterday with a 6-3 win over Lakeville North followed by a 10-6 loss against Excelsior. 

These guys have found a way to come through in clutch situations all summer and they did so again in the opening win over Lakeville. Dalton Leuschke came to the plate in the ninth in a 3-3 game and drilled a three-run, walk-off shot.

"It was crazy," head coach Kevin Engebretson said. "Parker [Giroux] and Colin [Erickson] were on base when he hit it. It was nuts."

That made a winner out of Erickson on the mound. He gave his teammates another great start, tossing all nine innings and allowing just the three runs on six hits. Leuschke provided the offense with four RBI, while Giroux also chipped in three hits. 

That advanced them to the winners’ bracket where they took on another team ranked in the top five of the latest legion polls. Excelsior’s Brian Joe had a great game with a triple and a double and Brady Williams hit a home run to help his team build a 10-0 lead.

Alexandria responded, scoring one in the seventh and five in the eighth to cut that lead to four. That’s the closest they got, though, as Excelsior held on and Alexandria fell to the losers’ bracket for day two.

"I thought they played awesome for being in their first state tournament in a while," Engebretson said. "We played two really great teams. Lakeville North, they were in the top five. Excelsior, they were in the top five and now tomorrow Eastville is in the top five."

First pitch against Eastview is set for 1 p.m. today, Friday, at Al Nyberg Field in Hibbing. 

"We gotta hit the ball," Engebretson said about today’s game. "They like to run and bunt and try to turn singles into doubles, things like that. So we need to hit the ball well and hopefully score a bunch of runs."

Nate Nelson will take the mound for Alexandria. He is coming off a strong start in the district tournament where he threw eight innings and allowed just three runs, while striking out seven. It’s become a win or go home situation for Alexandria in the double elimination tournament.

"He gets a lot of ground balls," Engebretson said. "So we’ll see what happens. Gotta play it out."

If the success of both of the VFW baseball teams in Alexandria are any indication, fans of the Cardinal program may have a lot to look forward to in the coming years. 

The Alexandria 16s and 15s teams recently wrapped up very strong regular seasons by finishing as the top two teams in their district. Both teams finished 8-1 in league play, but it is the Alexandria 15s who will take the top seed into the playoffs next week. Nick Knoblach led the 15s to a 3-1 win over their older counterparts earlier this summer when he scattered just four hits. That gave his team the advantage in a tiebreaker situation.  

The 15s wrapped up the top seed in the league with a 3-2 win over Willmar I on Tuesday night. Once again, it was Knoblach who provided the strong start on the mound. He held Willmar to just five hits and got stronger as the game went on, throwing three perfect innings to close out the game after he allowed two runs in the fourth. 

Both teams have had a good mix of strong pitching and offense this summer. Jeff Swedberg has been a force for the Alexandria 15s squad at the top of the lineup. He got his team going against Willmar with a solo home run in the first inning on Tuesday night. Almost everybody throughout the lineup has stepped up at one point or another throughout the summer.

The 16s have also put together a great summer. They had a 23-5 record after sweeping Starbuck in a doubleheader on Tuesday night. The 16s have featured the same kind of attack, with a potent lineup and a pitching staff that has been consistently effective this season.

A.J. Anderson, Logan Serum and Aaron Billberg have anchored that pitching staff. All three have given the team a lot of innings this summer and generally give their team a chance to win every time out. Serum has been especially strong in his last two starts, where he has gone 14 innings and allowed just two runs, both unearned, on a combined seven hits. He has issued seven walks in those two starts but countered by striking out nine. 

The offense has put up runs in bunches all summer. It is a lineup that hasn’t featured any huge weaknesses 1-9. Buck Smith, Tanner Rice, Brock Wood and Anderson have anchored a potent top of the lineup for much of the year, while the depth provided by players like Dan Anderson, Erich Murphy and Darian Bowman has proven to be a big difference maker.

Whether or not the success by both of the Alexandria teams will translate into future success at the high school level remains to be seen. It’s always hard to judge summer baseball results because a lot of games aren’t played against the same programs they will face in high school.

Perennial CLC powers like Rocori, Sartell-St. Stephen and Brainerd aren’t a part of their district. With that said, both Alexandria teams have performed well this summer against the teams that have been put in front of them. That’s better than the alternative.     

The Resorters baseball league is already wrapping up its regular season this weekend with a slate of games. 

The Alexandria Senators wrapped up the No. 2 seed in the West playoffs with a 13-0 win over Kensington this past Saturday. That win, coupled with an Ashby win over Osakis, clinched the second seed for the Senators even after they dropped a 14-4 game against Brandon-Evansville the following day.

Derek Miller led the Senators to the win over Kensington on Saturday. He threw a two-hit, eight-inning complete game, striking out 10 along the way. Kurt Kalina had a big day at the plate with four hits, including a triple, to go along with three runs and an RBI. Dylan Carlson was not far behind with three hits and two RBI.

The Senators could not carry that momentum into their game against a very good Brandon-Evansville team the next day. The Bluedogs head into the West playoffs as the No. 1 seed and the clear favorites to win the tournament. They have already qualified for the Region 16C tournament in August. They cruised through the regular season with an 11-1 record in the West Division. The Senators currently have a 6-5 record in the West heading into this last weekend.

There is still chance to catch the Senators at Knute Nelson this weekend. They conclude the regular season by going to Ashby for a game against the A’s on Saturday before returning to Alexandria on Sunday night to face the Osakis Hawks. Both games are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

The following is a schedule of the rest of the games on tap for the final weekend of Resorters League baseball: JULY 9 – Urbank at Clarissa, 7 p.m.; JULY 10 – Miltona at Osakis, 2 p.m.; Long Prairie at Carlos, 7:30 p.m.