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Post 41 season ends at league tourney

By Mirror Staff Reports - | Aug 2, 2010

Tonganoxie’s Post 41 baseball team was able to rattle off a pair of wins at its league tournament this weekend in Leavenworth, but ultimately bowed out of the double-elimination bracket with a pair of losses, marking the end of the American Legion team’s season.

Tonganoxie had its tourney opener against Geiger on Friday at Padilla Field, in Leavenworth, and earned a six-run lead a

2010 Tonganoxie Post 41 Baseball Schedule

Date — Opponent, field

June 9 — Lansing Reds, Lansing High, L 11-1, L 13-1 (0-2)

June 15 –Outlaws, home, L 14-0, L 12-2 (0-4)

June 18 — Leavenworth Knights, home, W 5-2, W 12-5 (2-4)

June 22 — Diamond Jaxx, home, W 10-4, W 11-7 (4-4)

June 25 — Geiger, home, W 13-3, W 10-8 (6-4)

June 27 — Outlaws, Padilla Field, L 14-4, L 15-1 (6-6)

June 30 — Lansing Cubs, Lansing High, L 11-10, L 10-8 (6-8)

July 7 — Diamond Jaxx, Padilla Field, L 10-9 (6-7)

July 9 — Lansing Reds, home, L 18-4, L 7-6 (6-9)

July 13 — Lansing Cubs, home, W 11-1, W 8-5 (8-9)

July 22 — Zone, at Kansas City, Kan.: Piper, L 15-2, L 16-1 (8-11)

July 31 — League, at Padilla Field: Geiger, W 15-5 (9-11); Outlaws, L 7-5 (9-12)

Aug. 1 — League, at Padilla Field: Leavenworth Knights, W 11-5 (10-12); Diamond Jaxx, L 7-2 (10-13)

fter four innings before severe weather suspended the action.

“We didn’t get much rain. We got a lot of lightning,” said Post 41 coach Pat Bailey, explaining why the game was postponed until Saturday morning, when his team finished with a 15-5 victory.

That didn’t leave Tonganoxie with much time before it had to take the field once more Saturday afternoon against the Easton Outlaws. After going up five runs in the first, Easton scored six in the second and held on for a 7-5 win.

A loss away from elimination, Post 41 kept its season alive Sunday with an 11-5 victory over the Leavenworth Knights, which was highlighted by a three-run homer off the bat of Dylan Fosdick. “He just crushed it,” Bailey said of Fosdick’s blast over the left field wall.

However, Tonganoxie played again immediately following that victory and had its season come to a close with a 7-2 loss to the Diamond Jaxx, a team Bailey thought Post 41 should beat, given that his squad had already done so twice in the regular season.

“I don’t know if fatigue was an issue, but we just couldn’t get our bats going,” the coach said.

Post 41 (10-13) entered the league tournament as the No. 4 seed and finished in fourth place out of seven teams.

Bailey said a few players keyed the team’s two victories.

“You’ve got to give Brett Bailes credit for coming in against the Outlaws and throwing,” Bailey said of his reliever, who didn’t allow any runs. “He didn’t start that game, but after we brought him in, he shut them down.”

A similar scenario played out for AJ Gilbert in Tonganoxie’s defeat of Geiger. Gilbert didn’t start, but when he came in with his team down five runs, he didn’t allow Geiger to cross the plate for the remainder of the comeback win.

“He was a good arm for us all year,” Bailey said of the pitcher.

At the plate, Bailey added, Cody Saladin, Bailes and Corey Klinkenberg played well this weekend.

Sunday’s loss marked the end of a strange season for Post 41. A number of rainouts messed with the schedule and for a number of games, players were out due to vacations and other circumstances.

“We just couldn’t find any consistency,” Bailey said.

But the coach wasn’t overly disappointed in the way things turned out.

“They played pretty hard and I was pretty happy with them,” he said of the players. “You always feel like you could’ve done better but it wasn’t meant to be I guess.”

Tonganoxie had a zone series with Piper on July 22 but was swept in the best-of-three playoff, losing 15-2 and 16-1.