The Starbuck Jr. Legion (age 16 and under) ended its season with a 9-0 loss to Holdingford in a playoff game played Tuesday night at EV-Watkins.

Starbuck opened up the playoffs with a 10-0 win over Long Prairie before being sent to the loser’s bracket with a loss to Spicer, 6-0.

Morris beat Spicer in the upper bracket finals, 5-1, and was set to play the winner of the consolation bracket in the title game of the double-elimination tourney.  Other teams still alive were EV-Watkins, USA and Holdingford.

Starbuck, coached by Chris Lence, Andy Goracke and Paul Johnson, went 9-3 in league play this year to place second and was 10-7 overall.

The winner of the North Central, Sub-State playoff advances to the state tourney, set for Aug. 3-6 at Granite Falls.

•  Members of the Starbuck Jr. Legion, coached by Chris Lence, Andy Goracke and Paul Johnson, are Connor Frey, Marc Gruber, Riley Dell, Ben Johnson, Tate Anderson, Braylen Scharmer, Levi Johnson, Connor Erickson, Jackson Holmes, Ethan Jacobs, Tyson Metz, Aron Majerus, Oliver VanDerHagen, Noah Jensen, Caden Larsen, Luke Danielson, Evan Friese and AJ Svec.

Holdingford 9, Starbuck 0

The Starbuck bats remained silent during the final game against Holdingford as only Marc Gruber had a hit for the locals.

Holdingford meanwhile, had four players with two hits each and also got a three-run homerun by another.

Starbuck had five players reach base as Levi Johnson, Connor Frey, Evan Friese and Caden Larsen all had walks and Gruber went 1-for-3 with a single.

Absorbing the loss for Starbuck was Connor Erickson, the first of three pitchers for Starbuck.  Erickson allowed one hit and two unearned runs in the first inning before giving way to Jackson Holmes and Marc Gruber.

After having success offensively all season, Starbuck ended its season with a pair of shutout losses.

Hurting the chances of Starbuck during its final game was the loss of firstbaseman Noah Jensen, who had surgery scheduled from a prior injury and was forced to miss the rest of the season.

Season stats will be highlighted next week, but Levi Johnson (.479), Connor Erickson (.478), Noah Jensen (.474), Connor Frey (.471), Evan Friese (.464) and Riley Dell (.395) all hit close to .400 or better for Starbuck, which had a team batting average of .329.

Friese (.634), Jensen (.611), Levi Johnson (.576), Frey (.514) and Erickson (.493) also all had on-base percentages of close to .500 or better.

In addition, thirteen different pitchers saw action for the Starbuck Jr. Legion baseball team this year, including Connor Erickson and Jackson Holmes who were both 2-1.

Holdingford 9, Starbuck 0

Holdingford 9 11 1

Starbuck (10-8) 0 1 4

HITTING:  STAR-Marc Gruber 1-for-3; Levi Johnson 0-for-2, bb; Connor Frey 0-for-2, bb; Evan Friese 0-for-1, bb; Caden Larsen 0-for-1, bb

PITCHING:  (ip-h-r-er-bb-so):  STARS-Connor Erickson (L)  1-1-2-0-0-1; Jackson Holmes 2-3-3-3-2-1; Marc Gruber 4-7-4-0-0-6 . . . HOLD-Patrick (W)  4-0-0-0-4-4; Huk 3-1-0-0-0-5

Check out more photos in our photo gallery!