American legion baseball: Glenwood-Lowry finds a good way to end the summer

Jul. 25—ROSEAU — When Glenwood-Lowry leaves for Roseau on Thursday morning, it has an opportunity to win its first American Legion baseball title in the 36th Annual Division II State Tournament.

Glenwood-Lowry makes its third appearance at the state tournament when it faces Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton Post 397 at 10 a.m. Friday in the opening round. It previously made appearances in 2021 and 2016.

"It's great for them," said Glenwood-Lowry head coach Joe Alexander. "It's a good way to end the summer. They seem to be playing great baseball at the right time."

With the exception of a couple of players, the team's makeup is the same of the Starbuck Junior Legion baseball team that defeated Upsala/Swanville to win a Division II state title in 2021 at Montevideo.

Fast forward two more summers, that core group has helped Glenwood-Lowry to a 20-6 record and another state appearance.

Since the calendar turned to July, Glenwood-Lowry has caught fire down the stretch of the season.

Glenwood-Lowry has an 11-1 record in July. Over that stretch, it beat Brooten Post 288 four times. The Jaguars made it to the Class A state semifinals in June.

Throughout the summer, Glenwood-Lowry has had a pair of losses against Class AAAA high school teams Champlin Park Post 600 and Chanhassen Post 580. It also earned a win against Becker and lost to Byron Post 119, which made it to the Class AAA state tournament.

"They're certainly battle tested and hopefully up for the challenge," Alexander said. "They've played tough competition and have responded well."

After beating Kerkhoven Post 223 twice to become the West Central Sub-State champion, Glenwood-Lowry has turned its focus to Roseau.

"Our goal is to go to Roseau this weekend and continue to play great baseball," Alexander said, "throw a lot strikes and put some good swings on the ball and see where the chips fall."

The chips will begin to fall against a DGF team that has a 27-4 record and has made the state tournament for a second consecutive summer after becoming the Northwest Sub-State champion against Wadena.

Wadena forfeited the championship after its coach and a pitcher were ejected for a violation of the pitching appearance rule, which resulted in no coach and led to the forfeiture.

"We're very excited. It's a little different of a team than last year," DGF head coach Allen Krueger said. "We graduated at least half our team and our starting lineup, so to go back with a different team and maybe even a younger team, it's been a good accomplishment for this team."

Post 397 has one super senior on its roster in pitcher Isaac Nelson, who attends the University of Minnesota-Duluth. He's not a college baseball player, but wanted to come back in hopes of leading DGF to a state title.

Krueger mentioned there was opportunity to have more super seniors back, but they decided to not return.

"For us to still make it without them, I thought the guys on the team really played well in the sub-state to get here," Krueger said. "I'm really proud of this group."

As for Glenwood-Lowry, it will be led by PJ Johnson and Dylan Alexander. Johnson was a an All-Area First Team selection and Alexander was an All-Area Second Team pick.

Johnson, who will attend St. John's University in the fall for baseball, will be Glenwood-Lowry's starting pitcher on Friday. He has the best career ERA in Minnewaska program history with a 0.77.

"Anybody in the area knows PJ as a tremendous baseball player," Joe Alexander said. "He controls the at-bat, the tempo. He's just dominant."

Glenwood-Lowry's lineup has plenty of firepower.

Glenwood-Lowry is hitting .321 and has five regulars batting at least .300. It also has a 2.67 team ERA.

"That's a formula for winning," Joe Alexander said.

Dylan Alexander leads Glenwood-Lowry with a .471 average and .747 slugging percentage. He has 41 hits, 30 runs, 20 RBIs, 10 stolen bases and eight walks in 97 plate appearances.

"We have a pretty stout lineup in terms of batting average and combining our speed," Joe Alexander said of his team that has stolen 70 bases at a conversion rate of 93.3%.

But, for Glenwood-Lowry, it will be without its No. 4 hitter at state. Noah Jensen tore his anterior cruciate ligament during football season and his surgery date to get it repaired was July 24.

"He had a tremendous summer for a kid that played with that significant of an injury, so we'll miss him and that will take a lot of power out of our lineup," Joe Alexander said. "But we have some younger kids that'll step up."

Jensen hit .320 and a .680 slugging percentage in 20 games. He had 16 hits, 21 runs, 21 RBIs, 20 walks and four stolen bases.

Now, Glenwood-Lowry will look toward players such as Riley Dell and Connor Frey to step up on the big stage. Dell has a .200 average in eight games and Frey has a .273 average in nine.

"Nobody will fill Noah's shoes," Joe Alexander said. "But, we'll get as close to it as we can."

1. Jack Majerus, CF

2. Alex Panitzke, 2B

3. Dylan Alexander, C

4. PJ Johnson, P

5. Connor Erickson, RF

6. Levi Johnson, SS

7. Riley Dell, 3B

8. Austin Ballhagen, LF

9. Ryland Martin, 1B

Game 1: Glenwood-Lowry vs. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, 10 a.m.

Game 2: Watertown vs. Eden Valley-Watkins, 12:30 p.m.

Game 3: La Crescent vs. Proctor, 4 p.m.

Game 4: Roseau vs. Sleepy Eye, 7:30 p.m.

Game 5 (Consolation semifinal 1): Losers of Games 1/2, 9 a.m. Saturday

Game 6 (Consolation semifinal 2): Losers of Games 3/4, 11:30 a.m. Saturday

Game 7 (Consolation championship): Winners of Games 5/6, 2 p.m. Saturday

Game 8 (Semifinal 1): Winners of Games 1/2, 5 p.m. Saturday

Game 9 (Semifinal 2): Winners of Games 3/4, 7:30 p.m. Saturday

Game 10 (3rd place): Losers of Games 8/9, 11 a.m. Sunday

Game 11 (Championship): Winners of Games 8/9, 1:30 p.m. Sunday