By John RittenhouseThe Luverne VFW baseball team came up one win short of qualifying for its first state tournament berth since 1994 during the VFW Third District Tournament played in Marshall Saturday through Monday.The young Cardinals moved into the four-team, double-elimination tournament’s driver’s seat by rolling to a 10-run win over Olivia before nipping Marshall Blue by two runs on Saturday.Blue advanced out of the tournament’s loser’s bracket Sunday morning to earn a shot at the Cardinals that same afternoon. A 21-run win by Marshall set up a championship game Monday night.Marshall topped Luverne by five runs in the title tilt to earn a trip to next weekend’s VFW State Tournament in Alexandria.Luverne ends the season with a 21-10 record.Blue 7, Luverne 2Marshall wrapped up its Third District Tournament championship by besting the Cardinals by five runs in Monday’s championship game.Blue put together a pair of three-run innings at the plate, giving the host team enough counters to win the game handily.Marshall opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning, when a two-run homer highlighted a three-run rally.The score remained 3-0 until the top of the fourth, when Luverne scored its first run.Brett Lundgren walked and Marc Boelman singled in the fourth before Chris Fitzer delivered an RBI single.Marshall put the game away by scoring three runs in the fifth to open a 6-1 lead before the teams exchanged runs in the sixth inning.Tyler Reisch and Fitzer reached base on errors in the sixth for Luverne. Reisch was forced out at third base as the inning progressed, but Nathan Boler slapped a single that scored Fitzer moments later.Boelman took the pitching loss after yielding six runs in four and one-third innings. Jake Clark surrendered one run in one inning, and Boler recorded the final two outs of the sixth inning for Luverne.Box score AB R H BIClark 4 0 0 0Lundgren 2 1 0 0Boelman 4 0 2 0Reisch 3 0 0 0Fitzer 3 1 1 1Elbers 2 0 0 0DeBoer 3 0 0 0Boler 2 0 1 1Oeding 3 0 0 0Blue 21, Luverne 0Marshall forced a championship game by rolling to a 21-run win over the Cardinals in Sunday’s game at Legion Field.The experience was a humbling one for the Cardinals, who were unable to stop a pair of nine-run innings Blue put together during the game.Caleb Bruynes started the game on the mound and left the game without recording a single out.Blue scored nine runs in the first inning, and put together a string of eight consecutive hits in the frame.Marshall increased its lead to 12-0 by scoring three runs in the fourth inning before adding nine more in the fifth. Blue had a string of seven consecutive hits in the fifth.Luverne, which was limited to four hits in the game, received a four and one-third innings, 14-run relief stint from Micah Boomgaarden. Adam Finke recorded two outs in relief of Boomgaarden.Box score AB R H BIClark 3 0 1 0Lundgren 2 0 1 0Richters 1 0 0 0Boelman 2 0 0 0Deutsch 0 0 0 0Reisch 2 0 0 0Boler 1 0 0 0Fitzer 3 0 0 0Nath 1 0 0 0Elbers 2 0 1 0DeBoer 1 0 0 0Oeding 2 0 1 0Luverne 4, Blue 2The Cardinals emerged as the tournament’s lone undefeated team after Saturday’s first two rounds of tournament play by defeating Marshall by two runs in Game 2.Andrew DeBoer threw a seven-inning complete game to get the win for Luverne.Boelman and Fitzer produced key run-scoring hits during a two-run surge in the top of the fifth inning that settled the issue.The score was tied at two when Blue plated a run in the bottom of the fourth, but the Cards regained the lead for keeps in the top of the fifth.Lundgren singled and scored the go-ahead run when Boelman doubled. Boelman capped the scoring when Fitzer chased him home with a single.Marshall scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the first before Luverne countered with a two-run rally in the top of the third.Singles by Craig Oeding, Clark and Lundgren loaded the sacks in the third. Tyler Reisch plated Oeding and Clark with a double that gave the Cards a 2-1 edge.Box score AB R H BIClark 3 1 1 0Lundgren 4 1 3 0Boelman 3 1 1 1Reisch 4 0 2 2Fitzer 4 0 3 1Elbers 3 0 0 0DeBoer 4 0 1 0Boler 4 0 0 0Oeding 3 1 1 0Luverne 14, Olivia 4The Cardinals opened the tournament by coasting to a 10-run, six-inning victory over Olivia during Saturday’s first game.Oeding drove in three runs to lead the Cardinals offensively, and Fitzer tossed two and two-thirds innings of solid relief to pick up the pitching win.Lundgren allowed three runs to score during three and one-third innings of work as Luverne’s starting pitcher before giving way to Fitzer.The first batter Fitzer faced blasted a two-run homer to knot the score at four. Fitzer, however, blanked Olivia in the final two frames to lock up the win.Luverne, which lost a 4-0 lead when Olivia tied the game with a four-run surge in the top of the fourth, scored 10 runs in the final three innings to win the game by the 10-run rule.Clark walked and scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the bottom of the fourth on a throwing error.DeBoer and Derek Elbers slapped consecutive singles in the bottom of the fourth before scoring on a single by Oeding and a fielder’s choice by Clark to make it a 7-4 game in the fifth.The contest ended when Luverne scored seven runs in the sixth inning.DeBoer, Oeding and Lundgren all had two-run singles during the final rally.Luverne scored the game’s first four runs in the bottom of the first.Lundgren and Reisch drew walks before Fitzer plated the first run with an RBI single. Ben Nath delivered a two-run double and Elbers singled home a run before the rally was complete.Box score AB R H BIClark 2 1 0 1Deutsch 0 1 0 0Lundgren 5 1 2 2Boelman 4 1 1 0Reisch 1 1 0 0Boler 2 0 0 0Fitzer 3 2 2 1Nath 2 2 1 2DeBoer 4 2 2 2Elbers 4 2 3 1Oeding 4 1 2 3