Post 354 softball bows out at regionals

The Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau Post 354 American Legion softball team’s bid for a trip to Merrill for the state tournament was dashed with a pair of losses at regionals last week.

G-E-T (5-3) wrapped up their summer by taking part in a Division 2 regional tournament hosted at Keller Park in Fall Creek last Monday and Tuesday, losing twice on the opening day of play.

Fall Creek captured the regional title and Augusta finished as the runner-up to each advance to state, while G-E-T and Osseo both were eliminated.

Fall Creek 12 G-E-T 1

Post 354 could not keep pace with the hosts during their opening-round matchup last Monday at Bartow Field.

Fall Creek tagged G-E-T starting pitcher Sam Stanton for eight runs in two innings (four unearned) and added another four runs total (one unearned) in the ensuing two innings. Post 354 finally got some kind of offensive spark thanks to Claire Baures’s leadoff triple in the top of the fourth. She scored on Claire Irons’s two-double RBI double later that inning.

However, that wasn’t enough for G-E-T to avoid a mercy-rule loss after they failed to score in the fifth. Baures was responsible for two of her team’s three hits.

Osseo 10 G-E-T 6

Despite a stronger performance at the plate, Post 354 failed to keep their season alive with a second straight loss Monday night at Kunert Field.

RBI singles courtesy of Brookelynn Keller and Baures in the bottom of the first allowed G-E-T to grab an early 2-0 advantage, but Osseo scored the game’s next seven runs.

Post 354 benefitted from a trio of Osseo errors in the bottom of the fifth, helping them score two runs to cut their deficit to 7-4. After Osseo scored thrice more in the top of the seventh, G-E-T tallied two final runs in the bottom half of the inning thanks to Tori Thoma’s bases-loaded walk and Keller’s infield RBI single, but that’s all the further their comeback attempt went.