Unlike all other high school sports, baseball players get a second chance at striving for the state American Legion tournament every summer, and the Duluth Tropics have earned the right to represent the Northeast Minnesota area this week by romping undefeated through the Substate 1 tournament with five straight victories.

Owen Marsolek, a lean and lanky left-hander was nearly perfect on the Mettner Field mound Saturday afternoon, opening with four no-hit innings and finishing five with a 1-hitter, striking out seven in the game, that was called after five innings by Legion mercy rules. 

The Tropics, now 19-6 for the season, are comprised mostly of Duluth East players, with a few from Denfeld and Marshall filling out the 18-man roster

In the final, the Tropics had to beat Grand Rapids for the second time in the double-elimination tournament, and the offense blitzed Rapids for two runs in the first, two more in the second, and a 7-run eruption in the third. 

The sources of the offense were up and down the lineup, as leadoff man Joe Nick went 3-for-3, including two doubles, while Max Barrisford and Jayger Atkinson were both 2-for-3. Jack Teachworth hit a 2-run double in the third inning, but shortstop Dylan Cole commanded the spotlight, getting two of the Tropics 12 hits in the big third-inning rally.

The Tropics had little difficulty proving their No. 1 seeding, beating Rock Ridge, Grand Rapids, Proctor-Hermantown, Rock Ridge for the second time, and then Grand Rapids for the second time. Historically, the Duluth area used to have teams like Zenith City, David Wisted, West Duluth, Woodland, as well as Cloquet, Proctor, Two Harbors, Silver Bay. 

The changing population and elimination of high school feeders Central and Morgan Park has left only The Duluth Titans among Senior Legion programs, while the West Duluth Cubs are contending in the Junior Legion program.

In high school, late winters lead to brief spring seasons with limited scheduling, and as competitive as the teams are, they usually are quickly beaten by the larger Twin Cities schools who have earlier warm weather and longer seasons. So the chance to come back and regroup for summer American Legion ball is a fulfilling option, and this year’s Duluth Tropics have proven that conclusively.

While the Legion baseball tournament was playing out on Cloquet’s Mettner Field in 90-degree heat, nearby inside the chilly Proctor hockey arena, Proctor, Hermantown, Duluth East, Denfeld, Cloquet and North Shore were joined by Rock Ridge, St. Cloud Cathedral, St. Cloud Public, Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Totino Grace, Monticello, Mahtomedi, Cambridge-Isanti, and Northern Lakes for the annual Proctor Summerfest hockey “scrimmage” tournament.

One of the highlights of the three-day event was the appearance of Northern Lakes, which is the team now coached by Mike Randolph, who spent 32 years coaching East to two state championships and 18 total state tournament appearances. Randolph has coached a record-tying 707 high school victories, adding the last 49 of those during three seasons at St. Thomas Academy, before some surprise behind-the scenes politics caused him to not get a new contract. After searching through all the coaching job openings, Randolph interviewed at Northern Lakes and was quickly hired.

His assistant at St. Thomas, Tom Klein, has joined Randolph and the two have a solid crop of returning players and some impressive young prospects up from a regional runner-up Bantam team. 

Plus, a young and very talented goaltender named Sam Suja moved to Pequot Lakes, which is the primary high school for the consolidated Northern Lakes Class A program. Suja was brilliant in stopping several breakaways and surviving some goal-mouth scrambles to beat Cloquet.

Northern Lakes lost 5-0 to Mahtomedi, and lost a very intriguing 1-0 battle against Duluth East Saturday afternoon. 

“We got everything out of this tournament that I had hoped for,” said Randolph. “We used 14 forwards, 8 defensemen and all four goaltenders, and I was really impressed with how hard we played and our competitiveness. We’re going to have a solid team by the time we get going.”

Northern Lakes lost to Alexandria in the Section 6A final this past season, after reaching the state tournament two years ago.

In the tournament’s first day, Hermantown — the perennial 7A favorite — startled some by losing 4-2 on an empty-net goal to Benilde-St. Margaret’s. While observers at Proctor were suggesting that Mahtomedi and St. Cloud Cathedral might be the state’s top two Class A teams going into this next season, games were also scheduled at Hermantown’s arena, and the Hawks came back to prove, once again, that their losses just mean a few more players get to come up from Bantams and start their varsity time.

Hermantown beat Mahtomedi 2-0 and beat St. Cloud Cathedral 5-2 for two impressive victories against the teams that have tormented the Hawks in the last couple state tournaments. 

“I’m really excited to work with these kids,” said coach Pat Andrews. “River Freeman had a big weekend, and so did some of our other veteran players, and some of the incoming sophomores looked really promising.”

Question answered:  One of the biggest surprises in women’s college hockey came two years ago, when long-time Harvard coach Katey Stone was dismissed without a new contract. 

Surprising as that was, a bigger surprise was that nobody in the Boston-area media got to Stone for her side of the story, which was fueled by accusations of poor treatment of players in a program that has been one of the most solid women’s programs in the country.

Last week, the other shoe dropped when Katey Stone filed a discrimination lawsuit against Harvard for her dismissal, so it appears that her side of the story will become major news and could be scandalous for Harvard.