The Glenwood-Lowry baseball team placed second at the State American Legion Division II Baseball Tournament at BOLD this summer.

The Lakers won their pod playoffs before earning the West Central Sub-State title with a 4-1 record and then going 2-1 at state to place second overall.

Glenwood-Lowry, coached by Joe Alexander and Jeff Panitzke, won its first two games over Esko (12-5) and Rushford-Peterson (5-2) before losing to Sleepy Eye in the finals, 7-4.

The Lakers, who were 8-4 at one point this season, went 15-2 the rest of the way to finish the season with a 23-6 overall record.

•  Last year at the State Legion Tourney, the G-L Legion went 1-2 to place fourth, beating DGF in the first game (8-1), but losing two-straight games on walk-off hits to EV-Watkins (2-1) and LaCrescent (6-4).

•  The roster list for this year’s G-L Legion team, coached by Joe Alexander and Jeff Panitzke, includes Austin Ballhagen, Marc Gruber, Connor Frey, Riley Dell, Zach Gugisberg, PJ Johnson, Jack Majerus, Levi Johnson, Connor Erickson, Alex Panitzke, Ryland Martin, Dylan Alexander, Aron Majerus, Nathan Dell, Ethan Jacobs, Noah Jensen, Evan Friese and Caden Larson. 

Season statistics

The Lakers had a great season in 2024 batting .288 as a team with an on-base percentage of .396.

Seven different regulars had batting averages of .295 or better and seven also had on-base percentages of .400 or better.

Leading the way for G-L was Dylan Alexander, who led the team with a .413 average, 101 plate appearances, 92 at-bats, 38 hits, 10 doubles and 19 RBI.  He also had an on-base percentage of .455.

Connor Erickson was next with a .370 batting average and .433 on-base percentage.  He also had 20 hits, 13 RBI and 12 runs.

Also batting .295 or better with at least 10 at-bats were PJ Johnson (.323), Austin Ballhagen (.318), Noah Jensen (.311), Levi Johnson (.297) and Alex Panitzke (.295).

And, ending the season with an on-base percentage above .400 were Jensen (.469), Ryland Martin (.448), Ballhagen (.444), PJ Johnson (.427) and Panitzke (.415).

Jack Majerus led the team with 108 plate appearances with Panitzke second with 106, while Majerus also had the most at-bats (95) with Alexander second with 92.

Nathan Dell had two triples this season to lead the team, while Jensen had a team-best three homeruns this summer, Jensen was also second with 18 RBI and PJ Johnson was third with 15, while Panitzke had a team-high 23 runs scored and Majerus was second with 19.

Jensen had 22 free passes (walks and hbp) to lead the team while Panitzke had 18 and Ballhagen was third with 15.

Ballhagen also led the Lakers with 16 stolen bases this summer and Majerus, who owns the school record for the high school team, was second with 15.

•  In pitching statistics, Ryland Martin led the way with an 8-1 record, followed closely by PJ Johnson (6-1), Austin Ballhagen (4-0), Alex Panitzke (4-2), Nathan Dell (1-1) and Marc Gruber (0-1).

Martin also had a team-best 1.209 ERA this summer followed by PJ Johnson (1.323) and Nathan Dell (1.826).

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