Groton used technically sound baseball to make a rematch of the 2012 American Legion Baseball State B Tournament championship look almost easy.
Defending champion Groton defeated Flandreau 8-2 Sunday at Bob Wiley Field in Webster. Along with traditional RBI singles and doubles, Groton generated runs on stolen bases, sacrifice bunts and without hits.
"Those are the things we have been working on all year," said Parker Rossow of Groton. "We know it is important to execute those type of things to help us score runs."
Flandreau Post 70 (19-7) will now play Vermillion Post 1 (32-8) at 5 this afternoon in an elimination game. That will be followed 30 minutes later by Groton Post 39 (31-7) vs. Tabor (13-8).
The five-day, double-elimination tourney will end Tuesday with the championship game. Win or lose today, Groton will find itself in a championship game Tuesday, either at 1 p.m. if it wins, or 5 p.m. if it loses.
Groton scored two runs without a base hit in the first inning. After loading the bases, Groton got RBIs from Mason Madsen on a fielder's choice and from Dalton Locke on a groundout.
Groton continued to play smart baseball in the second inning when Matt Thorson singled, stole second, got to third on a wild throw and stole home.
Later, Post 39 would use sacrifice bunts by Parker Rossow, Michael Erickson and Brandon Stanley to generate runs. It was a true baseball clinic.
Groton coach Travis Kurth was pleased with his team and his players' execution. "We did a nice job of bunting tonight. We know Flandreau has an excellent catcher (Jacob Patterson). So the plan was to get a guy on, and then bunt him over to get him in scoring position. We did a good job of that tonight."
Rossow had two hits to lead Groton's eight-hit attack. He has been back about four weeks since breaking his wrist earlier this year. "I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable at the plate," he said. "I have been taking extra hitting and working on my swing."
Rossow said he and his teammates are excited to have done this well so far against great teams. "We hope to keep the momentum going and have confidence in ourselves. It is really a lot of fun to play with this group of guys. We have good leaders who have a lot of talent."
Kurth said Tabor will present his team with many challenges. "They have a good pitching staff and they hit the ball well. They are a team to be reckoned with, no doubt. We will play hard, go after it and try to get a win."
Game notes: Dane Campbell was the winning pitcher. . . It looked like most of Groton was in Webster for this game. . . The umpires broke out their stars and stripes shirts for this game between the final two undefeated teams of the tourney. . . The Webster 13-14 Teeners won the State B tourney in Clear Lake Sunday with an 18-4 win over Canova. . . Webster parents are being praised by tourney officials for helping them clean up the grounds each night after the tourney ends for the day.
Groton|201220010-881
Flandreau|000000110-284
Dane Campbell, Parker Rossow (8), Jamie Jorgensen (9) and Kasey Kurtz; Mitchell Hansen, Michael Nelson (4), Geno Bursheim (8) and Jacob Patterson. 2B - Groton, Kurtz; Flandreau, Kyle Scofield. LOB - Groton 13; Flandreau 9. Winning pitcher - Campbell. Losing pitcher - Hansen.
Twitter: @jpapendick