Rosetown Legion Finishes 2-2 at Upper Midwest Classic

The Rosetown Legion Rockets went 2-2 against top competition at the Upper Midwest Legion Baseball Classic on Friday and Saturday.

Rosetown's 8-5 win over Creighton, NE, highlighted its appearance in the tournament on Friday. The Rockets rallied from behind to for the win despite four runs in the first twoinnings by Creighton.

“Creighton’s program is renowned,” Rockets coach Jesse Lopez said. “They’re a good baseball team. It was one of the best games we played. Everybody showed up and played well.”

The Rockets had bounced back after opening the tournament with a loss in their early game on Friday. They fell to Eastview 12-3 after Rockets pitcher Corey Strecker left the game in the early innings.

Lopez pulled Strecker with a 3-2 lead due to the sweltering heat, and he had a relief pitcher come in.

“He couldn’t get it going, and the game got away from us,” Lopez said about bringing in a relief pitcher.

Eastview piled on most of its runs in one inning to pull out a lopsided win. That loss put the Rockets in need of a win on Saturday morning to advance to the championship round.

Unfortunately for Rosetown, Duluth defeated the Rockets 11-1 on Saturday morning.

“We couldn’t get the right pitchers,” Lopez said.

However, the Rockets closed the tournament strong in their final game on Saturday witha 10-0 over Escanaba, Mich. The Rockets’ bench players contributed largely to the win and sent them back to Roseville with a 2-2 record in the tournament.

The Rockets had entered the tournament following a big 6-3 win at North Saint Paul on Wednesday.

The Rockets will return to action on Tuesday, July 5, with a contest at home against Tri-City Maroon at 6 p.m.