Legion baseball: Wadena is headed back to Division II state tournament

WADENA – The Post 171 Legion baseball team is headed back to the Division II state tournament after beating Esko twice over the weekend.

Wadena knocked off Esko 10-1 on Friday before picking up a 5-2 win on Saturday afternoon. Trailing 1-0, Josh Dykhoff launched a three-run home run in the bottom of the third inning, Scoring Gunner Olson and Isaac Hamann.

Tyson Barthel followed with an RBI single before Peyton Church brought another run home on a sacrifice fly. Post 171’s five-run third inning was enough to punch its ticket to Luverne this weekend.

In the first game against Esko, Wadena jumped out to an early 2-0 thanks to another long ball from Dykhoff. He drove home Hamann with a two-run shot in the top of the first inning.

Esko got its only run in the bottom of the first inning before Church drove home Evan Lunde with a fielder’s choice. Brandon Wheeler made it a 4-1 game with an RBI single before Dykhoff added another RBI to his ledger with a base hit.

Post 171 scored five runs in the top of the seventh inning. After Barthel and Connor Davis scored on errors, Church drove in Teshe Loer with a single to take an 8-1 lead. Hamann added another with an RBI single before Dykhoff tallied his third run-scoring hit of the game.

On the mound, Dykhoff three all seven innings. He surrendered just five hits and one walk with 12 strikeouts. In game two, Payton Rondestvedt threw a complete game as well. He allowed two earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts. Rondestvedt also led Wadena to a 10-2 win against Taconite on Wednesday.

Post 171 heads to Luverne this Friday for the Division II state tournament. Wadena takes on the host team at 7:30 p.m. The winner gets either Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton or Tri-Town Atwater.