Luverne claims title
Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 14, 2005
The Luverne Dixie Youth All-Stars unbeaten streak came to a halt against Enterprise in the district tournament in Greenville, a few short days after the team claimed the sub-district title with a 5-2 win over Troy.
Enterprise beat Luverne 3-1 on Tuesday night. Luverne played Hartford in an elimination game late Wednesday night. Results were unavailable at press time.
Against Troy in the sub-district title game last Thursday, Pete King launched a two RBI hit with two outs recorded in the first inning to get things started for Luverne. Troy evened the scoreboard at two apiece in the bottom of the first, the only two runs allowed by Luverne the entire sub-district tournament. After that, Adam Sport pitched four scoreless innings and Rann Smyth led the way for Luverne, going 2-for-2 with three RBIs.
The title game came one night after Luverne survived yet another scare against host-Highland Home. Luverne beat Highland Home in back-to-back 1-0 games. In the second contest, King was strong on the mound, striking out 13 batters while allowing five runners to reach base, two from walks, two from hits and one by error. Blake Hermeling was 1-for-2, scoring the winning run on a two-out hit by Michael D'Arville. Nicholas Kilpatrick and King also added hits for Luverne.
"I'd like to thank the parents and fans for their support during sub-district play," said Luverne head coach Steven Sipper. "And a special thanks to my assistant coaches, Freddie Hermeling, J.D. D'Arville, and Brandon Rolling."
The Luverne Dixie Youth beat Georgiana 10-0 in the first game of the tournament, then beat Highland Home for a thrilling 1-0 victory before having the face the host-team again the following night.
In the two teams first meeting, Austin Brown provided what proved to be the game winning run, knocking home Zane Sexton in the second inning of play. Luverne finished with three hits, while D'Arville struck out 13 of 21 batters at the plate for the visitors.