Rosetown Legion Season Ends on Late Run By North St. Paul

Rosetown Legion concluded its baseball season with a 2-1 showing at the District 4 Tournament on July 18-23  with an 8-7 loss to tournament runner-up North St. Paul.

“We came in as the sixth seed, and we knew were better than that, and we felt we were underated,” Rosetown player Ryan Busch said. “We felt pretty confident after we won our first game. When we lost our second game, we lost that spark and ended up losing two.”

The Rosetown Legion Rockets started the District 4 tournament off as hot as the 90-plus degree weather on Tuesday, July 19, when it pounded White Bear Orange, 14-5 at Midway Stadium. The Rockets had strong hitting and solid pitching to beat the number three seed in the tournament.

“Every time we needed a score, we got it,” Busch said.

The Rockets ran away with the game offensively and gave pitchers Nick Pitzl and Ryan Minder plenty of run support. Pitzl started the game and went five innings, and Minder closed the game with pitching the final four. The Legion teams played nine-inning games for the tournament instead of the usual seven, which posed a challenge for the 12-man Rockets roster.

“We had a very thin roster, and it took a toll at times,” Rockets coach Jesse Lopez said.

The Rockets saw it especially in pitching through the remainder of their tournament run as their six pitchers logged extra innings with the nine-inning games. In the second round on Wednesday, July 20, the Rockets fell 9-3 to Tri-City Red.

“We couldn’t get runners home and capitalize on the opportunities,” Lopez said.

Busch noted that his team missed some fly balls on fielding, and a missed line drive could have changed that game. The two teams had split in their regular season meetings.

The Rockets battled for the playoff lives the next day on Thursday, July 21, against NSP. The two teams went back and forth throughout, but NSP put the winning run across in the final inning for an 8-7 win.  

“We ran out of pitching,” Busch said. “We had a guy go for the second half of that game after throwing the day before.”

The Rockets also missed an opportunity with a runner on second and no outs. The Rockets also jumped out to an early lead.

“We played well enough to win,” Lopez said.

The Rockets ended their season at 14-13-1. They started the season at 1-4 before putting together win streaks of three and four games to finish sixth in the District 4 regular season.

“We had fun as team,” Busch said. “Everyone definitely got a lot of playing time. It was a successful season.”

Lopez completed his first season as the Rockets’ head coach.