The Crookston American Legion Post 20 Baseball team split two games this evening at the Dakota Classic in Lennox South Dakota. Crookston fell in their first game of the day to Aberdeen South Dakota but bounced back behind a complete-game pitching performance from Alex Longoria to win their second game of the day 4-3 over Lennox South Dakota.
CROOKSTON VS ABERDEEN
Blake Melsa got the start on the mound for Crookston and put up a scoreless top of the first inning. Crookston then got on the board right away in the bottom of the first when Alex Longoria singled and came around to score. That gave Crookston a 1-0 lead after one inning of play.
Unfortunately for Crookston, it was all Aberdeen the rest of the game. After the teams went scoreless in the second inning, Aberdeen put up 13 combines runs in the third and fourth innings. It was a combination of some hits, walks, and errors that allowed Aberdeen to take a commanding 13-1 lead.
Crookston would get a single from Ashton Larson in the bottom of the fourth inning but nothing more, and that would give Aberdeen a 13-1 win in four innings. Crookston struggled to get the bats going, striking out 11 times in the game. They also gave up 7 unearned runs defensively.
For Crookston –
Alex Longoria 1 for 1, run, BB
Ashton Larson 1 for 2
| GAME 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | R | H | E |
| Aberdeen (S.D.) | 0 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 9 | 1 |
| Crookston | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
| Blake Melsa – Crookston (LP) | 3 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Spencer Ness – Crookston | .1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Justin Lindgren – Crookston | .2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
CROOKSTON VS LENNOX
Crookston would bounce back in their second game of the day and come away with a 4-3 win thanks to a great pitching performance from Alex Longoria.
Crookston was the away team and got on the board in the top of the first inning to take an early lead. Alex Longoria drew a leadoff walk and came around to score. Longoria would then deliver a 1-2-3 inning on the mound in the bottom of the frame, to give Crookston a 1-0 lead after one inning.
After the teams went scoreless in the second inning, Crookston got two more runs in the top of the third to take a 3-0 lead. Longoria would once again reach base on a single, and after Blake Melsa drew a walk shortly after, both would come around to score later in the inning.
Lennox would get both runs back in the bottom of the frame after their first two hitters each reached base and came around to score. That made it 3-2 Crookston through three innings of play.
Pitching controlled the rest of the game as each team would only get one more run. Crookston would get theirs in the top of the sixth inning with some production at the bottom of the lineup as George Widman would reach base to start the inning and come around to score for a big insurance run.
Crookston would need the insurance run, because Lennox would score one run in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull within one run, and the go-ahead run would reach base with two outs. Longoria would bear down and induce a flyout for the final out of the game, giving Crookston a nice 4-3 win, moving them to 1-2 on the weekend.
Longoria led the way with a complete-game performance on the mound surrendering just 5 hits, and he also scored twice to help lead the offense.
Crookston will wrap up play in Lennox tomorrow afternoon when they take on Sioux Falls South Dakota. The first pitch is scheduled for 10:30 a.m.
For Crookston –
Alex Longoria 1 for 3, BB, 2 runs, 2 SB
Ashton Larson 3 for 4, rbi
Blake Melsa, Sac fly, rbi, BB
Cade Coauette, 2 for 4
George Widman, BB, run
| GAME 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
| Crookston | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
| Lennox (S.D.) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
| Alex Longoria – Crookston (WP) | 7 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 7 |
