Legion rallies late for playoff win
Owatonna shortstop Gavin Saxton attempts to turn a double play at second base as his sunglasses fly off his head. Saxton’s throw to first was in time to secure the second out.
Dartts Park played host to a wild opening-round playoff game between Owatonna and Stewartville last weekend where 21 combined runs were scored in eight innings.
Owatonna’s Legion Post 77 came out on top 11-10, but the winning effort took some timely hits and nerves of steel.
Scoring kicked off in the top of the first when Stewartville jumped out to a 2-0 lead to quickly put Owatonna on its heels at home.
Neither side scored in the second, marking one of just two scoreless innings in the game.
Stewarvtille added another run in the top of the third, but Owatonna answered well with two runs of its own to cut the lead to 3-2.
The fourth inning was the highest scoring frame of the game with Stewartville tacking on four more runs and Post 77 adding two.
With the score at 7-4, Owatonna went to work shifting the momentum of the game.
Post 77 managed to blank Stewartville in the fifth and scored a run of its own in the inning to shrink the deficit to 7-5.
Stewartville scored once in the top of the seventh, but the insurance point was quickly negated by three Owatonna runs to tie the game at 8-8.
Owatonna’s hero was Will Frantesl, who entered the game in the seventh to pinch-hit in a two-out, two-on situation.
With the game on the line, Frantesl made solid contact and legged out a double to knock in two runs and put himself in scoring position.
However, Stewartville was not rattled by Owatonna’s late-game resurgence.
Instead, the opposition scored twice in the eighth inning to once again put Owatonna on the ropes.
Now needing at least two runs to keep the game alive, Owatonna quickly went to work keeping its scoring streak alive.
Two runners reached base before Connor Wiese recorded a two-RBI single to tie the game again.
Stewartville’s pitcher was visibly shaken by the sudden onslaught and began to lose control of his pitches.
Owatonna was eventually able to load the bases before Hunter Theis took the plate with the winning run just 90 feet away.
Theis kept his composure in the massive spot and didn’t even need to swing the bat to do his job as he earned a walk to bring home the winning run from third.
Owatonna’s win set the team up to play the Rochester Mayo Red Hawks on Monday, July 21 at 5 p.m.
Stats and results from the game were not available at the time of press.