Greg Helget and Ely's American Legion baseball team would not be denied.
The senior righthander pitched 12 innings Sunday and picked up two wins, as Ely completed its comeback from the elimination bracket and claimed its third straight district championship with a 3-2, 7-1 sweep of Taconite.
Helget tossed a complete-game three-hitter in the opener and kept right on going in game two, working the first five innngs and allowing just two hits before giving way to Wes Snyder.
Ely (27-7) erased a 2-0 deficit with three runs in the fourth to force a deciding game, and then pounced early in game two, striking for four runs in the top of the second.
That was enough for Helget, who didn't give up an earned run on Sunday and finished the tournament with three wins and a 0.00 earned run average in 19 innings pitched.
Ely, which advances to state for the 11th time in 16 years, will take on Paynesville at 4 p.m. Friday in a Division II state quarterfinal game at Sacred Heart.
Taconite pounded Ely 11-2 Friday in a winners bracket game but Post 248 turned the tables before a big crowd in Sunday's rematch.
Pat Huisman's pinch-hit single got Ely on the board in the bottom of the fourth and closed the gap to 2-1. Cody Bialik drew a bases-loaded walk to force in the tying run and the go-ahead tally scored on a wild pitch.
Helget, meanwhile, worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the sixth and retired the side in order in the seventh.
Ely was the visiting team in the nightcap and batted around in the second, chasing losing pitcher Derek Bundy. Wes Snyder's run-scoring double drew first blood, and Helget followed with a run-scoring single. Trevor Bernsdorf's two-run single made it 4-0.
Snyder added a two-run single in the third and drove in another run in the seventh while finishing three-for-four.
Helget gave up an unearned run in the fifth while Snyder tossed two innings of hitless relief as Ely secured its 11th state tournament berth in 16 years.
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