Legion wins sub-state tournament
Owatonna Legion Post 77 won the sub-state one tournament last week with a 12-2 victory over the Rochester Redhawks. Owatonna won four consecutive games to finish the tournament as undefeated champs. Photo from X
Owatonna’s Legion Post 77 baseball team breezed through its 2025 sub-state one tournament by posting four consecutive wins in convincing fashion.
The team’s closest game came in the opening round during an 11-10 win over Stewartville that went into extra innings before the team won out with three dominant victories.
“It really kind of came down to getting those big hits in the first few playoff games. Prior to the tournament, we played a lot of games and saw a lot of action in other tournaments that definitely seasoned this team. It gave us the reps that a lot of our kids needed to put ourselves in a great position to play our best ball in July,” said Owatonna Legion Head Coach Tate Cummins.
The key difference for Owatonna down the stretch was a major improvement on defense.
Post 77’s pitching and fielding was on point when it mattered most, allowing just four runs over the final three games.
The team’s 3-1 quarterfinal win over the Rochester Redhawks saw four consecutive scoreless innings to begin the game before Owatonna’s offense came to life in the fifth.
Two hit batters and an intentional walk loaded the bases for Post 77 with one out, which eventually led to two runs via a sacrifice fly from Isaiah Farwell and a single by Connor Wiese.
The Redhawks battled to earn a run in the sixth to cute the lead to 2-1, but another single by Wiese with a runner in scoring position gave Post 77 a critical insurance run.
After beating the Redhawks 3-1, Owatonna went on to face Rochester Century.
Both teams found themselves in another war of attrition with Owatonna taking a slight 1-0 lead in the second inning, and holding its one-run advantage through five innings.
Owatonna didn’t give Century a chance to play catch up after scoring four runs in the sixth to lead 5-0.
Post 77 benefited from another three-walk inning to put itself in prime scoring position with just one out.
Two runs came on a fielding error by Century with the last two coming via a sacrifice fly from Wiese and a single by Jace Ulrich.
Pitcher Mitch Seykora was excellent on the bump for Post 77 and pitched 6.2 innings, allowing just four hits, four walks and one run while striking out 10.
The win set Owatonna up for another showdown with the Redhawks in the championship game.
Post 77 rolled out Ulrich to take the mound for the biggest game of the season and were rewarded with a stellar outing from the rising-senior.
Ulrich 5.2 innings allowing just five hits and one earned run in an abbreviated game that Owatonna won by the mercy rule in the sixth.
Post 77 was winning a close 3-1 game through three innings before the team exploded for five runs in the fourth and four more in the sixth.
Monster performances at the plate came from Seykora (two hits, three runs and an RBI) and Wyatt Frantesl (one hit and four RBIs.)
The 12-2 win earned Owatonna the 2025 sub-state tournament and wrapped one of the best spring and summer seasons for Owatonna baseball in recent memory.