Post 91 takes second in own tournament

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 8, 2003

Rosemount was the only team good enough to beat the Austin Legion Post 91 baseball team this weekend in the eighth annual Holiday Classic Tournament held Friday and Saturday at Marcusen Park.

Rose-mount, ranked 10th in Division I, rolled to 12-4 and 7-1 victories over the local Legion team to take the top spot in the four-team event. Austin defeated Faribault 3-1 Saturday morning to exit round-robin play at 2-1, splitting games with Mankato and Rosemount on Friday. Austin met Rosemount in the championship game as the top two teams exiting pool play. Rosemount's only loss was 9-3 to Mankato in an afternoon game on Saturday.

As it had before against Austin, Rosemount got a strong pitching performance and prevailed with plenty of offense. Post 65 scored six times in the top of the seventh inning to overtake starting pitcher Nels Nelson, who suffered the loss in the championship game.

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Austin's only run came in the fifth as Pete Korfhage and Adam Edge reached on back-to-back errors and Kyle Rizzi drove one home with a sacrifice fly.

The game was knotted at 1-1 entering the deciding seventh inning.

Against Faribault on Saturday, John Bastyr delivered the game-winning hit in the form of a two-run single that gave Austin a 2-1 lead in the sixth. Bastyr would then score on an errant throw for the final 3-1 decision.

Rizzi struck out 10 in the complete-game victory for Post 91.

Austin, now 9-10 overall, returns to First District play at home Saturday against LaCrescent. The doubleheader is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.