By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

It was a great year of baseball

What a great spring and summer of baseball!  Not only was the high school season unbelievable, but the Legion, Jr. Legion and amateur baseball seasons were also special and very entertaining.

In early June, I was trying to figure out some things I’d fill the sports pages with during the summer months, but it didn’t take long for me to realize how big baseball is in Pope County and how many great opportunities I’d have to see some great baseball.

•  The high school season ended with a tough loss for the Lakers in the first round of the section tourney to Morris Area, but before then, Minnewaska Area earned a share of the WCC title with Montevideo.  The two teams split an early doubleheader before sweeping the rest of their games and both finishing 13-1 in league play.  The Lakers were also 15-5 overall.

•  The Starbuck Stars, who came within a couple wins of the state tourney last year, finished 8-9 this summer, but it was still a very fun season.  The Stars ended their summer schedule with a loss to Regal in the consolation bracket of the County Line playoffs.  Although the Stars didn’t advance to the region tourney, when you have a team of multiple Grubers, Alexanders, Johnsons, Ver Steegs and more, you know it’s going to be an exciting team.

•  The Jr. Legion also had a great summer of baseball, finishing 9-3 in league play and 10-7 overall after losing back-to-back games in the playoffs to Spicer (6-0) and Holdingford (9-0).  There’s no doubt the future of baseball in Pope County continues to look good.

•  And, the Glenwood-Lowry Legion baseball team highlighted the end of the summer baseball season by earning a berth in the State Division II Legion Baseball Tourney where the Lakers went 1-2 to place fourth and finish the season with a 21-8 overall record.  It was the second state Legion trip in the last three years.

Some of these players have been playing baseball non-stop since the start of the high school season in April, while others played on multiple teams this summer to help one of the three squads fill out their rosters.

Among the players playing nonstop baseball since late March is Noah Jensen, a junior this year at MAHS, who played high school, Jr. Legion and Legion baseball.  However, he had surgery scheduled for late July so when the Glenwood-Lowry Legion team advanced to state, Jensen was unable to play.

Jensen batted .414 during the high school season with an on-base percentage of .534 and then batted .474 for the Jr. Legion (.611 on-base percentage) and .320 for the Legion team (.520 on-base percentage).  He was a homerun-hitting machine for each of his teams and a steady offensive weapon.  “Yes, Noah’s bat likely creates a different outcome in one or two of the games (at the state tourney), but he needed to get his surgery done so he is 100% for this next school year,” high school and Legion head coach Joe Alexander said. 

You want to talk about tough losses?  The Legion team’s final two games were a 2-1, 11-inning loss to EV-Watkins and a 6-4 loss to LaCrescent in the third-place game.  Both of those defeats were walkoff wins for the opponents.

During the semifinal loss to EVW, the Lakers scored a run in the second inning, but were unable to score a second run despite three walks and a double in the inning.  EVW meanwhile, scored a run in the bottom-half of the seventh to send the game into extra innings and then scored the winning run on a one-out single in the bottom-half of the 11th.

EVW went on to lose to Sleepy Eye in the title game, while Glenwood-Lowry lost another heartbreaker to LaCrescent in the third-place game as LaCrescent hit a two-out, three-run homer in the bottom-half of the seventh inning to earn the 6-4 victory.  Wow!

Asked just how tough the last two losses were for his Legion team, coach Alexander didn’t dwell on the negative, but said, “We just fell a couple of timely hits short (of winning) but that is baseball,” Alexander said.  “Yes, the kids are fierce competitors, but they understand the life lessons that baseball can teach you, so a loss, even as tough as the two during the state tourney, does not impact their behavior.”  

•  Levi Johnson, Connor Erickson, Caden Larsen, Noah Jensen and Riley Dell were among players playing Jr. Legion and Legion baseball this summer, while Dylan Alexander and PJ Johnson were among other players playing non-stop baseball for four months from the start of the high school season to the end of the Legion Tourney.

Johnson, a 2023 graduate, hit .350 for the high school team (.444 on-base percentage) and .385 for Legion (.478 on-base), while Alexander hit .356 for the Minnewaska Area Lakers high school team (.373 on-base percentage) and .500 during a great Legion season (with a .564 on-base percentage).

Despite losing the last two games of the State Legion Tourney, coach Alexander had nothing but good things to say about this year’s group of Laker baseball players.  “We were honored to have been selected as the winners of the sportsmanship award (at the State Legion Tourney) and we’re pleased to have gone 36-13 during the high school and Legion seasons,” Alexander said.  “It was a great year of baseball!”