With no American Legion teams playing out of Laurel, two members recently helped their summer team to advance to the Class C Senior State Tournament.
Koby Detlefsen is a member for the Hartington team and Tyler Olson for the Pender team.
In late July, the Hartington Seniors defeated Ponca thanks to a clutch performance Detlefsen.
Detlefsen drove in four runs on two hits to lead Hartington past Ponca 11-1 on July 29 during the Class C Area 1 finals on Orchard.
The Laurel native singled in the third inning, scoring two runs and singled in the fifth inning, scoring one.
Detlefsen also earned the win for Hartington as the starting pitcher surrendered five hits and one run over five innings, striking out one and walking one.
For Frontier Bank Pender Post 55 Seniors, Tyler Olson joined his Senior Legion teammates in winning the Class C Area 2 Tournament over Oakland by the score of 5-2 on July 29 in Wisner.
*No additional stats were provided.
Both Detlefsen and Olson joined their respective teams traveling to Sutton for the Class C Senior American Legion Baseball State Tournament.
Hartington dropped a 3-2 decision to Tecumseh-Johnson while Pender lost 5-4 against St. Paul both on August 2 in the first round.
The two teams met in the elimination round with Pender knocking out Hartington, 13-5 on August 3. Pender has since won two more elimination games knocking out the host Sutton (11-10) on August 4 and picking up a victory over St. Paul on August 5 (7-1).
The Class C finals were held on August 6 with Malcolm (undefeated in tourney play) taking on Pender (needed to win twice).
Class C Senior Legion baseball score from Sutton on Wednesday: Malcolm was crowned champion over Pender, 12-0.
There were also a few Laurel players who competed with the Wakefield Post 81 American Legion teams this summer.
They included Tanner Thompson, Turner Thompson and Weston Patefield.
The Wakefield Seniors finished 10-14. Post 81 suffered a 5-3 loss to Oakland on July 28 just one win shy of the Area 2 finals against Pender.
The Wakefield Juniors went 6-11 but caught fire in the Area 1 tourney winning back-to-back before dropping two straight including a 13-2 day three loss against the eventual champion of Hartington.
