Ely’s American Legion baseball team stayed hot on its annual trek to southern Minnesota.
In addition to two wins over Twin Cities teams, Post 248 stunned Class AA high school state tournament participant Cannon Falls, sweeping a June 26 twinbill 2-1 and 1-0 behind a pair of outstanding pitching performances.
College freshman Caid Chittum struck out a career- high 15 batters in the opening game en route to a two-hitter, and Parker Niskala and Stig Majerus combined on the shutout in the nightcap.
Ely also downed Minneapolis Northside 4-2 behind the pitching of senior Hunter Halbakken, and Post 248 withstood a late rally from Robbinsdale Cooper on Saturday, holding on for a 16-13 win in a slugfest that completed the three-day, four-game junket.
Add it all up and Ely is off to an 11-0 start, the best since the 2004 team opened with 17 consecutive wins.
“It hasn’t been fancy and at times we haven’t been pretty, but this group keeps finding ways to win and that’s a good sign,” said head coach Tom Coombe. “We’ve got some very good competition coming up in our Midsummer Classic but we’ve beat a few good teams already, especially Cannon Falls.”
The opening game at Cannon Falls’ John Burch Park was a pitching battle, but Chittum was dominant, giving up an unearned run in the second inning and otherwise keeping the hosts in check.
He struck out the side in the first, fourth and fifth frames and retired 15 of the last 17 batters he faced.
Chittum’s two-out single to left tied the game in the top of the third, and Owen Marolt followed with a double to the gap that plated Chittum with what proved to be the game-winning run.
In the five-inning nightcap, it was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth when Parker Niskala singled to right.
Ben Leeson stole second base and came around to score on DJ Johnson’s single to center.
The hits by Niskala and Johnson were Ely’s only hits of the game.
On the mound, Niskala went two innings and worked out of a second-inning jam thanks to a double-play turned by Johnson.
Majerus pitched three scoreless innings without giving up a hit and struck out three on the way to his first career Legion pitching win.
In the opening game of the trip, Halbakken went the distance, shaking off a first-inning, two-run home run by college bound Clark Traxler-Menz and finishing with a three-hitter and five strikeouts.
The senior improved to 3-0 on the mound this summer.
C hittum drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning, and singled and scored on a Marolt hit in the sixth.
Ely scratched out two more runs with the help of three walks, an error and a wild pitch.
The winners had just three hits in the game, singles by Chittum, Marolt and Majerus.
In the finale, Chittum was three-for-four with two runs scored and four runs batted in as Ely piled up 16 runs in the victory.
Sean Merriman singled and drove in two runs and Marolt was two-for-five with a double and three runs batted in.
Cedar Holman scored three times while Tyde Brecke and Halbakken both had two runs scored, a single and an RBI.
Marolt struck out eight in five innings and left with a 16-6 lead, but Robbinsdale Cooper stormed back, pulled within three runs and had the bases loaded in the seventh before Merriman came on to gain the save.
• Ely was set to take on Blackduck after deadline and will host high school rival South Ridge at 7 p.m. Monday, in tune-ups prior to this week’s Ely Echo Midsummer Classic (see related story).
