Ely’s American Legion baseball team gained some respect, picked up a win and captured some hardware during last weekend’s Division II state tournament.
The win came in the consolation round, as Post 248 held on to beat La Crescent 7-6 in an Aug. 1 matchup at Veterans Memorial Field.
And while the hosts fell 10-3 to area rival Esko in Saturday’s consolation title tilt, a few hours later the host team won an even bigger honor - winning the State Sportsmanship Trophy in the eight-team event.
Ely, which dropped a 6-5 heartbreaker to Sibley East in a July 31 quarterfinal before a packed house, wound up 19-8 for the season.
It was a more than respectable showing for Ely, who lost all three games when they last hosted in 2019 and picked up the program’s first state tournament win in more than a decade.
The hosts were competitive in all three games, had an all-tournament team selection in shortstop Caid Chittum, and won the coveted doubles among his four hits and wound up with four runs batted in, Even Leeson chipped in with three hits, scoring four times on the day.
Marolt helped his own cause with three runs batted in on two hits including a double. He also scored three runs.
Drew Johnson provided two hits including a double from the top spot in the Ely order.
Ely went 0-2 at last year’s state tournament but was hoping to pull a first-round upset Friday against Montevideo.
Other first-round games include Dilworth-Glyndon- Felton against New London-Spicer, St. Charles battling Sleepy Eye and host Hayfield meeting Le Sueur-Henderson.
The entire consolation round as well as the semifinals are on Saturday, with both the third-place game and state title matchup on Sunday.
• Four of the teams in the Division II Junior Legion State Tournament had teams in the senior event held in Ely last week. Those are Ely, Montevideo, New London-Spicer and Dilworth- Glyndon-Felton.
