When American Legion-sanctioned baseball in Minnesota was canceled for the season in May, local youth were unsure if they would play at all this summer.
In order to still offer a season, Luverne leaders and coaches worked to create non-Legion sanctioned teams for Legion and Junior Legion-aged players to begin play once pandemic-related restrictions began to relax in Minnesota.
The Junior Legion-aged team is playing as the Luverne 17-and-under (17U) team, which opened its season last weekend in a tournament in Renner, South Dakota.
The team played three South Dakota teams. Luverne lost to Renner and Watertown and tied West Central.
Longtime Luverne Junior Legion coach Mike Wenninger pointed out how different it is to open the summer baseball season in mid-June with players who didn’t have a school season in the spring.
“It was their first three games in many months,” Wenninger said.
“Everyone played and we had nine or ten kids pitch,” he said. “It tells us where we’re at right now.”
Renner 5, Luverne 3
Luverne opened its delayed 2020 campaign Friday, June 19, on the road in Renner, South Dakota.
The hosts came out on top 5-3.
Luke Bosch, Braydon Ripka, Kaden Anderson and Kaleb Hein had one hit each in the contest and Connor Overgaard, Harley Wendland and Hein each scored a run.
Anderson started on the pitching mound. He threw for three innings, striking out two Renner batters and giving up two runs.
Zach DeBoer then pitched for two innings. He gave up three runs and struck out two hitters.
Brock Behrend came in to pitch the final inning. Behrend struck out one batter and gave up no runs.
Box score AB H R BI
Bosch 4 1 0 0
Ripka 3 1 0 0
Reisch 1 0 0 0
Sehr 3 0 0 0
Overgaard 1 0 1 0
Anderson 3 1 0 0
Ossefoort 1 0 0 0
Wendland 0 0 1 0
Gangestad 2 0 0 0
Hein 1 1 1 1
Sneller 1 0 0 0
DeBoer 1 0 0 0
Behrend 0 0 0 1
Cowell 1 0 0 0
Halverson 1 0 0 0
Watertown 7, Luverne 1
The 17U team came up short in the second game of the Renner tournament Saturday, losing to Watertown 7-1.
Luverne’s lone run came in the sixth inning when Casey Sehr scored on a single by Gavin Reisch.
Kaden Anderson, Connor Overgaard and Reisch had one hit each in the game.
Sehr pitched the first four innings for Luverne. He gave up one unearned run, one hit and one walk while striking out three batters.
Luke Bosch pitched the next inning, giving up three runs (one of which was earned) and one hit. He struck out one batter.
Overgaard pitched the final two innings. He gave up three runs, two hits and walked three.
Box score AB H R BI
Bosch 4 0 0 0
Anderson 3 1 0 0
Sehr 2 0 1 0
Overgaard 2 1 0 0
Ripka 2 0 0 0
Reisch 1 1 0 1
Ossefoort 2 0 0 0
Halverson 1 0 0 0
Sneller 2 0 0 0
Hein 1 0 0 0
Behrend 1 0 0 0
DeBoer 2 0 0 0
Gangestad 1 0 0 0
Cowell 2 0 0 0
Luverne 5, West Central 5
Luverne’s third game of the weekend ended in a 5-5 tie.
With the threat of severe weather moving in and a 5-5 score at the end of seven regulation innings, the decision was made to end the game as a tie.
Braydon Ripka pitched three innings for Luverne. He gave up two runs, four hits and four walks while striking out three batters.
AJ Ossefoort pitched the next three innings. He gave up two runs, three walks and no hits and struck out four.
Luke Bosch pitched the seventh inning. Bosch struck out one batter while giving up one run and one hit.
Kaden Anderson scored two runs in the game. Bosch, Tryg Gangestad and Kaleb Hein scored the other Luverne runs.
Connor Overgaard had two RBIs for the Cardinals.
Box score AB H R BI
Bosch 4 1 1 0
Anderson 2 1 2 0
Sehr 2 0 0 1
Overgaard 3 1 0 2
Reisch 1 0 0 0
Ossefoort 0 0 0 0
Cowell 4 0 0 0
Halverson 1 0 0 0
Ripka 3 0 0 0
Gangestad 2 1 1 0
Hein 1 0 1 0
Sneller 1 0 0 0
Wendland 1 0 0 0