ELY — The La Crescent American Legion baseball team has added a third-place state tournament trophy to the runner-up hardware the same players won at the Minnesota high school state tournament two months earlier.
La Crescent defeated Luverne 7-6 in eight innings in the third place game Saturday at the Minnesota American Legion Baseball Division II State Tournament. Eden Valley Watkins won the championship game 15-3 over Ely.
La Crescent came from behind three times in the third place game, after Luverne built leads of 3-1, 5-4 and 6-5. La Crescent rallied for two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, after Luverne had taken the lead with a run in the top of the inning.
Paul Johnson pitched eight complete innings for La Crescent, allowing six hits and only two earned runs. La Crescent committed three errors in the game.
La Crescent finished second at the high school Class AA state tournament in June, losing to St. Cloud Cathedral in the championship game at Target Field.
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Kenyon, which finished sixth in the Division II tournament on Friday, was given the tournament's Rocky Wedin Sportsmanship Award.
Eden Valley Watkins' Matt Geislinger was named the tournament MVP. He was 6-for-11 with two doubles, a home run, seven RBI and seven runs scored.
• Albert Lea's run in the Division I state tournament ended Saturday with a 3-2 loss to Hopkins in an elimination game at Eden Prairie. Albert Lea went 1-2 in the double-elimination tournament, splitting a pair of games on Friday.
Albert Lea, the Division I representative, was at the American Legion state tournament for the first time in over 30 years.
