Lack of offense hurting Legion

Two bad innings prevented the Park Rapids American Legion baseball team from picking up two wins against subdistrict opponents.

Little Falls scored four times in the fifth inning to spark a 5-3 win at Park Rapids Wednesday night. Little Falls completed the sweep with a 13-1 victory in the second game.

On June 17, Bemidji scored six times in the sixth inning to rally for an 11-8 victory before completing the sweep with a 10-5 win in the second game.

Those four losses dropped Park Rapids to 1-7 in subdistrict play at the halfway point of the subdistrict schedule.

In addition to those four losses, the Legion went 0-3 at last weekend's Perham Wood Bat Tournament (losing to Fosston 6-0, Frazee 12-2 and Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 7-2) and dropped a 15-4 decision at Detroit Lakes Tuesday night.

Park Rapids carried a 1-11 record into Friday night's doubleheader at Brainerd. The Legion will make its final home appearance by hosting Bemidji in a doubleheader Wednesday night before closing out the regular season with road games at Little Falls July 6, at Pelican Rapids July 8 and at Nisswa July 9.

Little Falls earns sweep

An error, two bases-loaded grounders and three hits in the fifth inning sparked Little Falls to the win in the opener.

Little Falls scored a run in the first before Park Rapids tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth when Tom Juberian led off with a single, moved to third on Dylan Stenberg's sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch, and scored on Dan Ricke's single.

After Little Falls claimed a 5-1 lead in the fifth, the Legion scored twice in the bottom of the fifth. Levi Erickson and Dan Pike led off with singles before Cody Schirmers forced Erickson at third on a grounder. Dylan Walsh was safe on a grounder to load the bases before Juberian's grounder plated Pike. Schirmers scored when Juberian was caught in a rundown on a pick-off play.

Park Rapids managed only six hits in the game with Juberian and Erickson both going 2 for 3. Ricke took the loss, allowing eight hits over seven innings.

The Legion managed only four hits in the second game as Little Falls used an eight-run third inning to spark the sweep and improve to 9-1 on the season. Zach Anderson started and took the loss for the Legion.

Big inning lifts Detroit Lakes

Detroit Lakes sent 15 batters to the plate and scored 10 runs in the fifth inning to defeat Park Rapids.

Juberian provided the only offense for the Legion, following a single by Walsh in the first with a two-run homer and following a walk by Walsh with another two-run homer in the third.

Walsh took the loss as the Legion managed only three hits in the game.

Legion goes 0-3 at Perham

Park Rapids' offense was limited to only 11 hits in the three losses at Perham.

Singles by Cody Schirmers, Ricke and Juberian accounted for Legion's offense against Fosston. Ricke started and took the loss.

Against Frazee, the Legion managed only four hits as singles by Ricke and Juberian and a grounder by Stenberg led to a run in the third and singles by Schirmers and Ricke produced the other run in the fifth. Pike started and took the loss in that game.

The Legion followed with only four hits against D-G-F. Stenberg walked and scored on a wild pitch in the second and Derek Wittman walked and scored on Paul Dirks' single in the seventh. Stenberg went 2 for 2 at the plate and took the loss on the mound.

Bemidji sweeps pair

Park Rapids held early leads in both games at Bemidji before the home team rallied to win both games.

In the opener, the Legion scored three times in the first, three times in the third and twice in the fourth to build an 8-4 lead.

In the first, a walk to Schirmers and a single by Walsh set up RBI singles by Juberian and Ricke for a 3-0 lead.

Juberian was hit by a pitch and Kevin Vaadeland walked to set up an RBI double by Stenberg and an RBI single by Ricke for a 6-4 advantage in the third.

Singles by Schirmers and Walsh and Juberian's two-run double made it 8-4 in the fourth.

Park Rapids was held hitless the rest of the game as Bemidji rallied by scoring once in the fifth and six times in the sixth.

Walsh went 2 for 3 with two runs, Juberian went 2 for 3 with two runs and three RBI, and Ricke went 2 for 4 with two RBI to lead the Legion. Vaadeland started and took the loss.

In the second game, Park Rapids scored twice in the first before Bemidji scored three in the bottom of the first and four times in the third for a 7-2 lead.

Singles by Schirmers and Walsh and Vaadeland's two-run single gave Park Rapids the early lead.

The Legion closed the deficit to 7-5 in the fifth on a single by Schirmers, a walk by Walsh, and RBI singles by Juberian and Stenberg.

Bemidji sealed the win by scoring three times in the bottom of the fifth.

Schirmers, Walsh, Juberian and Stenberg all had two hits for the Legion. Stenberg started and took the loss.