The Luverne 17U baseball team wrapped up its pandemic-abbreviated 2020 summer season by placing second at the Southwest Minnesota 17U Tournament played in Luverne Friday and Saturday.
Luverne, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, defeated Minneota 10-0 Friday night and Worthington 5-1 Saturday morning before falling to Pipestone 5-0 in the championship game Saturday night.
Luverne 10, Minneota 0
Luverne 17U opened the year-end tournament by hosting Minneota Friday night.
The home team had little trouble with the visitors, coming out with a 10-0 five-inning victory.
Kaden Anderson pitched a no-hitter for Luverne. Pitching all five innings, he struck out seven batters and gave up only one walk and no runs.
Casey Sehr led the Cardinals at the plate with two hits, two runs scored and one RBI.
Anderson and Braydon Ripka also plated two runs for Luverne.
Box score
Minneota 0 0 0 0 0 0
Luverne 4 5 0 1 X 10
AB R H BI
Bosch 3 1 0 0
Anderson 2 2 1 0
Sehr 3 2 2 1
Overgaard 2 0 0 0
Connell 1 1 0 0
Gangestad 1 0 0 0
Ripka 1 2 1 3
Halverson 0 1 0 0
Sneller 1 1 0 1
Hein 1 0 0 0
DeBoer 1 0 0 0
Wendland 0 0 0 0
Ossefoort 1 0 0 0
Luverne 5, Worthington 1
In the semifinal round of the tournament Saturday morning, Luverne 17U defeated Worthington 5-1 at Redbird Field.
Casey Sehr pitched all seven innings for Luverne. He gave up two hits, one unearned run, no walks and struck out six Worthington batters.
AJ Ossefoort scored two runs for the victors.
Luke Bosch, Kaden Anderson, Riley Sneller and Sehr all had one hit for Luverne.
Box score
Worthington 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Luverne 0 0 2 0 1 2 x 5
AB R H BI
Bosch 4 1 1 0
Anderson 4 1 1 0
Sehr 4 0 1 0
Overgaard 3 0 0 0
Connell 3 0 0 0
Ripka 2 1 0 0
Sneller 4 0 1 0
Behrend 2 0 0 0
DeBoer 0 0 0 0
Ossefoort 1 2 0 0
Pipestone 5, Luverne 0
Luverne 17U, the No. 1 seed, faced Pipestone, the No. 2 seed, in the championship game of the Southwest Minnesota 17U Tournament at Redbird Field Saturday night.
The hosts found hits hard to come by, registering only three in the game, and were unable to turn those hits into any runs.
Pipestone came out on top 5-0 to win the tournament championship.
Casey Sehr had two of the three hits and Riley Sneller recorded the third hit for Luverne.
Conner Connell pitched the first innings for the Cardinals. He gave up three runs, two hits and five walks while striking out two.
AJ Ossefoort replaced Connell on the mound. He struck out one batter and gave up two runs, two hits and two walks during four innings of work.
Box score
Pipestone 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 5
Luverne 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
AB R H BI
Bosch 1 0 0 0
Behrend 1 0 0 0
Halverson 1 0 0 0
Anderson 2 0 0 0
Sehr 3 0 2 0
Overgaard 2 0 0 0
Ripka 3 0 0 0
Connell 2 0 0 0
Smith 1 0 0 0
Sneller 2 0 1 0
Cole-Kraty 1 0 0 0
Gangestad 2 0 0 0
Hein 0 0 0 0
Ossefoort 1 0 0 0
DeBoer 1 0 0 0
Wendland 1 0 0 0
Season recap
When pandemic-related concerns canceled the official Legion and Junior Legion summer baseball seasons in May, baseball coaches and leaders in local communities organized 19U and 17U teams instead.
The 17U team consisted of players ages 15-17 who would normally play on the Junior Legion team.
Mike Wenninger, the LHS and Junior Legion baseball coach, coached the team and was assisted by Jared Pick and Micky Sehr.
After losing the high school league baseball season, Wenninger appreciated the chance to coach players this summer.
“It was unfortunate that we lost the spring season because that’s when you learn the fundamentals, positioning and the concepts of the game,” Wenninger said.
“So we had a crash course tutorial on all that this summer, with very little practice time, and they handled it very well.”
Wenninger said having Pick and Sehr as assistant coaches helped with the teaching as well.
“Having two baseball-knowledgeable assistant coaches helped a lot; it was so beneficial to this group.”
The team ended the abbreviated season 7-5-1.
While there was not a state tournament to work toward this season, Wenninger is pleased with the progress his team made this year and the challenges they overcame.
“This team grew from beginning to end this summer,” he said.