Legion’s trip to state continues great baseball tradition in county
Sports | Published on August 12, 2024 at 2:19pm CDT
Speaking of Sports
By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter
The Glenwood-Lowry Legion baseball team’s trip to the State Division II Legion Tourney continued a strong tradition of baseball excellence in Pope County. This was the third state trip for the G-L Legion team in the past four years, having gone 0-2 at state in 2021 and 1-2 last summer before going 2-1 to place second this season. The Legion team, which also advanced to state in 2016, placing second, has earned four state trips overall.
Although the entire Glenwood-Lowry team was unreal and most of the players also made up the Minnewaska Area High School team this year which advanced to the section championship game, I do have to highlight the efforts of four players. Yes, this year’s G-L team included possibly the best baseball player in the area in four different age groups.
PJ Johnson was a strong pitcher, catcher and batter for the Legion team this year. A 2023 MAHS graduate, he also played some Starbuck Stars baseball this summer and it’s a shame the two teams were playing their final games at basically the same time so Johnson was unable to help out the Stars. Johnson batted .350 his final season of high school ball and ended his high school career by being named the MVP of the West Central Conference. He batted .323 with an on-base percentage of .467 this summer for G-L.
Dylan Alexander, a very strong catcher and offensive threat is a 2024 graduate of MAHS and was selected as the MVP of the WCC and Lakers this spring. He batted .442 for Minnewaska Area this spring and has been just as efficient this summer while leading G-L. In fact, he led the Legion team with a .413 batting average this summer and also had an on-base percentage of .455. In addition, Alexander played a few games for the Starbuck Stars this summer.
Next up is Noah Jensen, who will be a senior and 2025 graduate at MAHS in the spring. Jensen set a bunch of homerun and RBI records this past spring for the Lakers and continued his great play in the summer, playing first base and hitting in the clean-up position in the batting order. Jensen, who also played some Stars’ baseball this summer, batted .414 and had an on-base percentage of .534 two summers ago for the Legion team and also batted .400 this past spring for the Lakers’ high school team with an on-base percentage of .529 before hitting .311 with an on-base percentage of .469 for the Legion team this summer.
And finally, Connor Erickson will be a junior this year for the Lakers and will be a 2026 MAHS graduate. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been a big contributor to the team already though. He’s been a key contributor for the G-L Legion and high school team for the past two seasons, but he’s also one of the leaders of the Starbuck Jr. Legion team, which had a great season this summer. Erickson played for both the Jr. Legion and Legion teams this summer. He batted .478 last summer for the Legion team and batted .370 with an on-base percentage of .433 for the G-L Legion this summer.
Yes, when you consider those four players were joined by so many other great players including Nathan Dell, Austin Ballhagen, Ryland Martin, Jack Majerus, Alex Panitzke, Levi Johnson and Marc Gruber on the G-L Legion team and Luke Danielson, Gruber (he played for both teams, too), Miles Wildman, Riley Dell and Tyson Metz (among others) with the Jr. Legion, you get the idea about baseball talent.
• What a great rivalry MAHS and Montevideo have. The two teams were aware of each other coming into this season after battling the last few years, but this year’s WCC title came down to the wire between the two teams before the Lakers edged Monte 4-3 in the final week in an extra-inning game.
Montevideo returned the favor by beating the Lakers in the Section 3AA championship game, 3-2, but the Lakers returned the favor one more time by beating Montevideo in a best-of-three series to earn a berth at the State Legion Tourney. Can’t wait to see how the two teams top off the rivalry next spring.
• The Legion baseball team isn’t the only Pope County team to do well over the years. For other Pope County baseball history:
The Starbuck Town team has earned state berths 14 times in 1932, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999 and 2000.
The Glenwood Town team has advanced to state in 1952, 1953 and 1978.
The Starbuck-Hancock American Legion baseball team earned a state berth in 1986.
Minnewaska Area High School has earned state berths in 1992 and 2000.
The Starbuck VFW advanced to state in 2015.
The Glenwood-Lowry Legion team has earned four state berths in 2016 (runner-up), 2021, 2023 and 2024 (runner-up).
And, the Starbuck Junior Legion has earned three state berths in 2017, 2018 and again in 2021 when it came home as champions.
Wow, no wonder people refer to Minnewaska Area as the “baseball capital of west-central Minnesota.” Not really, but it sounds good and is actually very appropriate.
