Ely’s Junior Legion baseball team has punched its ticket back to state.
Post 248 overcame one shaky inning in the field and otherwise dominated Cherry, rolling to a 14-7 Northeast Substate title game victory Sunday afternoon at sunny Veterans Memorial Field.
The win gave Ely a second straight substate title and a berth in the Division II State Tournament, which began Friday in Hayfield, located between Rochester and Austin in southern Minnesota Ely (15-6) was set to tangle with Montevideo in the opening round of the eight-team event.
Ely was in the unbeaten position in the tournament and the top seed moving into Sunday’s final, which occurred after a several-day “reset” in the tournament because of the Division II Senior Legion State Tournament held in town.
After beating Cherry handily several days earlier, Post 248 was on fire early in the rematch.
Sean Merriman, who had five runs batted in, fueled a potent offense as the hosts jumped to an 8-1 lead after one inning and 11-1 after two.
It was 13-1 when Post 248 had its temporary hiccup.
Ely committed five fifth-inning errors, which led to five runs and wiped out a chance to end the game early.
A Merriman single added to Post 248’s lead and Cherry scratched out one more run, but the gap was too large to close.
Owen Marolt worked the first three innings on the mound for Ely, striking out four and allowing one run, which was unearned.
Next came Cedar Holman, who went four frames, giving up seven hits, with five of the six runs allowed unearned. He struck out four.
At the plate, Merriman had two sportsmanship award.
“That sportsmanship trophy means a lot,” said head coach Tom Coombe. “It says a lot about our guys and how they conducted themselves both on and off the field the whole week, and I think we turned some heads with the way we played. Oftentimes the host is not competitive, but we were right there with everyone we played.”
The highlight clearly came in the consolation round, when Ely built up a 6-0 lead and then held off La Crescent.
After the visitors closed the gap to 6-5, Talen Jarshaw led off the bottom of the sixth with a towering home run that cleared the left field fence by better than 30 feet. It was a key blow that provided a badly needed insurance run.
La Crescent scored an unearned run the seventh to cut the gap to 7-6, but reliever Owen Marolt coaxed a groundout to end the game with both the tying and goahead runs aboard.
Marolt worked two innings for the save, relieving starter Hunter Halbakken, who gained his sixth win and scattered six hits.
At the plate, Ben Leeson’s two-run single was one of the key blows in a six-run second inning, while both Chittum and Sean Merriman finished with two hits.
In the opening round, Ely clawed back from a 5-0 deficit, with La Crescent taking the lead on an Evan Pautsch grand slam that was preceded by three walks.
But buoyed by the big home crowd, Ely battled back.
Panichi lined three hits, and Evan Leeson doubled and scored in the seventh to cut the deficit to one at 6-5.
But missed opportunities were the story of the night, as Ely stranded the tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh and finished with a whopping 12 runners left on base.
“We had chance after chance but just couldn’t get the big hit we needed,” said Coombe. “The opportunities were there but we just weren’t able to cash in.”
Panichi started and went four innings for Ely, with Chittum working three innings of relief. The only run Chittum allowed was unearned.
Evan Leeson, Marolt and Panichi all drove in runs for Ely.
In the consolation final, Esko jumped out to a 10-0 lead, with a six-run first taking some of the air out of Post 248.
Again, Ely came back, with Chittum lining a run-scoring double and Panichi following with a two-run single.
Ely had further chances but couldn’t cut into the lead.
Jarshaw took the loss on the mound for Ely while Ben Leeson went three innings of scoreless relief.
Panichi finished with two hits in the game and six in the tournament.
The loss ended a big summer for Ely, which loses only Panichi off a roster that picked up nearly 20 wins and almost qualified for state on its own - settling for a second place Northeast substate finish.
“We are sure going to miss Louie, who was an outstanding player for four years for us,” said Coombe. “But to have everyone else back is a real plus and we can go into next summer knowing that we are going to be gunning for a state tournament berth. We’ll have pitching and experience and a group that’s used to winning.”
