Chad Milo had four hits and three RBIs with a home run in Eden Prairie’s game with the Rochester A’s.

Eden Prairie center fielder Adam Vortherms made three diving catches to rob base hits from the Rochester A’s

Brainerd’s Zach Heidmann had a homer and drove in three runs in his team’s 9-4 victory over Alexandria.

Apple Valley’s Josh Swenson had a homer, a triple and two singles as his team beat Coon Rapids 10-3.

Scott Williams of Brainerd hit a grandslam home run in an 8-2 victory over Duluth Lakeview.

Left fielder Tony Margarit went four for five as his Holy Angels team topped Fergus Falls 24-14.

Justin Huether of Brainerd pitched a three-hit game as his team defeated Duluth Lakeview 8-2.

Adam Vortherms, center fielder for Eden Prairie, dives for a catch in Friday's 10-9 victory over the Rochester A's. Vortherms later drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th.

Storm Gram led Woodbury’s 16-hit attack with a four for five performance. After reaching on an error in his first at bat, he settled into a batting groove that produced four straight hits. 

“We knew we had to hit the ball and play good defense,” said Gram, who was a member of a Woodbury Blue squad that placed third at last year’s state tourney in Northfield.

“The experience we gained last year was huge,” said Gram. “There’s no pressure anymore.”

One reason the team isn’t feeling pressure is the fact it played in two big invitationals out of state this summer. Woodbury Blue took second place at the Rapid City, S.D. Tournament and went 4-1 at the Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. Invitational.

“We got a tournament perspective from taking those trips,” said Mark Helsper, another returnee from last year’s team. “We’ve been together so long -- sticking together.”

Helsper came into the season as the top returning pitcher, but now the team has added another ace, Joe Bonfe,

In addition to his pitching contributions, Bonfe is hitting the ball well with a .438 average. Other high averages for Woodbury Blue belong to Sean Wilson (.449), Bryan Kloetzke (.448) and Gram (.357).

Woodbury coach Cary Kipke said, “We’re in the same spot we were last year. The difference I see is that the kids are more relaxed this year. The key to our game has always been pitching and defense. We’ve been able to make the plays in the field, and we made it through the Third District Tournament allowing only four runs. Sometimes we rely too much on our pitching and we don’t hit the ball as well as we’d like to. There are times when we don’t feel a sense of urgency.”

Kipke said that urgency shouldn’t be hard to find when his team plays Eden Prairie in a 7 p.m. winners’ bracket final Saturday at Dick Putz Field. “We’ve been playing Eden Prairie for years and have a lot of respect for that team,” said Kipke.

Josh Senson, left, and Steve McGuiggan, hit home runs for Apple Valley Friday.

Playing Coon Rapids on Friday in a losers’ bracket game at Dick Putz Field, Apple Valley abandoned its bunting and hit-and-run plays and went deep twice in a 10-3 win.

Steve McGuiggan, a 16-year-old center fielder, hit his first home run of the season to key a seven-run fourth inning for the 76ers, who raised their season record to 30-15. Josh Swenson had a homer, a triple and two singles for Apple Valley and Bryan Ruff pitched eight innings for the win.

“At the beginning of the season, we weren’t hitting very well as a

McGuiggan said his state tournament homer was a dream come true. “This field [Putz] is the favorite field I’ve ever played on,” he noted. “This is a great atmosphere for baseball. It was a good feeling to hit a home run here in an elimination game. The home run surprised me because I’m usually more of a contact hitter than a power hitter.

“They’re starting to fall for us,” said McGuiggan, who batted .312 in the regular season. “But Tom Buske has lined out five times already in the state tournament.”

Buske was Apple Valley’s RBI leader during the regular season

“We’re not as big a team as we’ve been in the past,” said Apple Valley, coach Bruce Young, whose team finished second in last year’s state Legion tourney. “You look out there and you won’t see a lot of six-footers, but these guys know how to compete.”

“We’re continuing a tradition here,” said Swenson. “I’ll put our five best pitchers against any in the state and we also have good coaching. [Coach] Young really knows the game, and he helps a lot of us with our swings. He reminds me to relax and keep my head in there.”

Swenson had his head in the game against Coon Rapids and the result was a memorable four-hit day at the plate.

State Baseball Director, Darwin Berg (left) and Local Co-Chairman Duffy Johnson

“If we can keep youth off the streets and playing ball, it’s good for the community,” said Johnson, who is co-director of the host committee for this week’s State American Legion Division I Baseball Tournament.

Johnson and co-chair Pete Cheely have been working behind the scenes to provide a successful tournament since last November with the help of key volunteers such as city facilities director Lyle Mathiasen, Brian Deyak, Scoot Hennen and Mick O’Hara.

“Scoot Hennen is president of Sports, Inc., and he has gone overboard with his time and effort,” said Johnson. “Mick O’Hara spends the whole day and night down here and Brian Deyak, the city employee in charge of Dick Putz and Joe Faber Fields, has bent over backwards for us. Lyle Mathiasen was instrumental in helping us get [St. John’s University football coach] John Gagliardi as our banquet speaker. Lyle played for John at St. John’s.”

So many other people have contributed to the success of the tournament. There are the ticket takers, the concessions workers, the grounds crew, the scorekeepers and the announcers, plus the team hosts.

“The Radens family sells souvenirs every day and night of the tournament,” said Johnson.

In all, there were 17 tournament sub-committees, all staffed by members of Sports, Inc.

“Sports, Inc. started back in the 1950s,” said Johnson. “The goal was to raise money for youth sports in the community. Sports, Inc. took over the St. Cloud Rox, the local professional team.

Johnson said he has been pleased with the 2005 American Legion Tournament. “It’s running smoother than I thought it would,” he said. “We were ready for everything that came up. We gave the teams the best hotel we could, the best banquet we could afford and some of the best fields in the Midwest. And the guy up above gave us the best weather.”

With no rain and temperatures in the mid- to low-80s, the tournament has been played in nearly ideal weather thus far.

Johnson said Sports, Inc. hopes to make a little money from the tournament, adding that the money will go directly back to St. Cloud’s youth and young adult sports programs.

In addition to sponsoring programs for players in grades 7-9, Sports, Inc. contributes money to local amateur teams, American Legion teams and VFW teams.

Johnson is a longtime supporter of Minnesota American Legion Baseball. He watched his son Jay win a state Legion title as a member of the St. Cloud 76ers in 1977 and followed Jay to the Central Plains Regional in Jamestown, N.D.

Johnson said that he, personally, would like to see the State American Legion Tournament return to St. Cloud in the near future. “We enjoy having the teams here,” he said. “I think it helped that we were able to get all the teams housed at one spot – the Holiday Inn. The people there gave us a price we could live with and also had the space we needed to host a banquet for 500 people.”

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