The Luverne 19-and-under (19U) baseball team opened its delayed season by going 2-1 at a Legion baseball tournament in Lennox, South Dakota, over the weekend.
Luverne opened Friday with an 8-6 loss to the host team, before defeating Sioux Falls West 2-1 Saturday and the Fargo Bombers 10-5 Sunday.
While the American Legion baseball governing board in Minnesota decided in May not to sponsor a sanctioned season in 2020 due to pandemic concerns, the local 19U team consists of players who would normally play on the Luverne Legion team.
Coach Codie Zeutenhorst said the team plans to play as many games as possible this summer with other area 19U teams.
Luverne’s first home game will be tonight (Thursday), June 25, versus Adrian at Redbird Field.
Lennox 8, Luverne 6
Luverne opened the weekend tournament in Lennox with an 8-6 loss to the host team Friday.
Lennox took an early lead by scoring four runs in the first inning.
Luverne then scored three runs in the second inning with three more runs in the seventh inning, including a single by Quinn Buss that scored two runners, but the late rally was not enough.
Ethan Beyer led Luverne at the plate with three hits in the game.
Jacob Van Dam pitched the complete game for Luverne. He gave up thirteen hits and eight runs while striking out four Lennox batters.
Box score AB H R BI
Beyer 4 3 0 1
Wenninger 1 0 1 1
Crabtree 3 0 1 0
Van Dam 4 0 1 0
Buss 4 1 0 2
Von Tersch 2 0 0 1
Anderson 3 1 1 0
Nekali 2 1 1 0
Halverson 1 0 1 0
Baker 1 0 0 0
Luverne 2, SF West 1
Luverne won its first game of the young 2020 season by defeating the Sioux Falls West Legion team 2-1 in Lennox Saturday.
In the top of the fifth inning, Luverne’s Colby Crabtree hit a sacrifice fly to score Trevor Halverson.
The only other run Luverne would need came in the top of the eighth inning when Jacob Van Dam hit a lead-off homerun.
Cade Wenninger pitched six innings for Luverne. He struck out five hitters and walked two while giving up three hits and one run.
Ethan Beyer earned the win for Luverne when he took the mound for the final two innings.
Beyer struck out four Sioux Falls batters and gave up one hit.
Box score AB H R BI
Beyer 3 1 0 0
Wenninger 3 0 0 0
Crabtree 2 0 0 1
Van Dam 4 2 1 1
Von Tersch 4 0 0 0
Buss 3 0 0 0
Anderson 2 0 0 0
Nekali 3 0 0 0
Halverson 3 1 1 0
Luverne 10, Fargo 5
Consistent scoring throughout the game led Luverne to its second win of the three-game tournament.
Luverne defeated the Fargo, North Dakota, Bombers 10-5 in Lennox Sunday.
Luverne scored one run in each of the first, second, and third innings before plating three runs in the fourth inning and four more in the fifth inning.
Colby Crabtree, Nathan Nekali and Ethan Beyer all had two hits for Luverne. Nekali scored three runs, including a homerun in the fifth inning, while Crabtree and Beyer added two runs each.
Crabtree and Quinn Buss also had three RBIs each for Luverne in addition to taking care of the pitching duties during the game.
Crabtree was on the mound for the first five innings and earned the win. He struck out eight Fargo batters and gave up four hits, three walks and five runs, four of which were earned.
Buss pitched the final two innings. He stuck out one batter while giving up one hit and one walk.
Box score AB H R BI
Beyer 5 2 2 2
Wenninger 3 1 1 1
Crabtree 3 2 2 3
Van Dam 2 0 0 0
Buss 2 1 0 3
Von Tersch 4 0 0 0
Anderson 3 0 1 0
Nekali 2 2 3 1
Halverson 2 0 1 0
19U team defeats Sioux Falls, Fargo
By
Jason Berghorst