Powerful La Crescent ended Ely's state title hopes Friday afternoon, blanking Post 248 on four hits in a 4-0 state tournament win at Dilworth.
Brandon Verthein's two-run homer to center in the bottom of the fourth broke a scoreless deadlock, and winning pitcher Austin Walleser wiggled out of trouble in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to send his team into Saturday's semifinals.
LaCrescent (16-1) handed Ely pitching ace Nick Pecha the first loss of his Legion career. The righthander gave up three earned runs and fanned seven.
Walleser, meanwhile, kept his earned run average at a perfect 0.00 by keeping Ely off the board. He stranded two runners in scoring position in the fourth, and he got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fifth. Ely also put two runners aboard in the sixth but came up empty.
Walleser gave up four hits, two to Ely's Sean Fisher.
Pecha kept La Crescent off the board through three innings but got nicked in the fourth. After a one-out walk, Verthein lifted a Pecha offering to center, where it cleared the 340-foot sign.
La Crescent, which eliminated Ely in the 2008 state semifinals, got an unearned run in the fifth and tacked on one more for insurance in the sixth.
Walks to Aaron Donais and Cody Bialik got Ely going in the fifth, and after Alex Koschak flew out, Josh Ojala drew another walk. But Walleser got a groundout and a strikeout to escape. Jory Johnson doubled in the sixth, but he was stranded at third.
La Crescent advances to meet Ada in Saturday's semifinal round, while Ely moves into the consolation bracket and an 11:30 a.m. meeting with BOLD, which fell 6-2 to Ada. The consolation title game is at 3 p.m.
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Congratulations Boys, Just for being there! You are all champs in my book!
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