Eau Claire American Legion Post 53 wraps up successful Classic with three wins

The Eau Claire Post 53 American Legion team won three games at their own River City Classic this past weekend, but the tournament was definitely about more than just winning and losing.

“The number one goal of our program, and thus what we hope the players get from it, is player development. We hope to make them better for their next high school season or prepare them for college baseball and beyond,” Mark Faanes, one of the coaches for the EC Post 53 American Legion baseball team told the Leader-Telegram late Monday morning.

He went on to explain just how the team benefits from several things the coaches try to implement each season that are intended to strengthen both the players specifically and the squad in general.

“Through a fairly intense game schedule, team practices and accessibility to the Momentum Baseball facility, our players have lots of opportunity to hone their skills while being guided by a very experienced coaching staff,” the coach said.

River City Classic ScoresEau Claire lost its Friday night game against De Pere, but then rebounded to be victorious in its Saturday and Sunday games to go 3-1 on the three-day weekend.

On Friday, it was De Pere 1, Eau Claire 0. On Saturday, EC Post 53 defeated Green Bay Southwest in a shutout, 6-0 and Marshfield Post 54 by a 4-2 count. In Sunday’s game, the local American Legion squad handled the Winona LeJetz by a final score of 8-5.

Other scores from the three-day Classic were Green Bay Southwest 8, Marshfield 4 on Friday. On Saturday it was Marshfield Post 54 5, Winona LeJetz 0; De Pere 7, Winona LeJetz 2 and finally De Pere 16, Green Bay Southwest 8. In addition to Eau Claire’s win over Winona on Sunday’s final day of the tournament it was Winona LeJetz 5, Green Bay Southwest 3 and De Pere 12, Marshfield Post 54, 2.

With the tournament now behind them, Faanes praised his squad and explained a few of the reasons as to why the Eau Claire squad had a successful weekend on the baseball diamond.

“Pitching was our strength this weekend, we allowed only eight runs in the four games and three of our pitchers, Aidan Ecker, Tyler Webb and Jack Gabler, were named to the all-tournament team,” the coach proudly said.

While Faanes said he could only approximate the total attendance for the three days of the classic, because “we don’t keep records of that” he did estimate that he thought there were between 500 and 600 people who showed up to Carson Park for the long weekend of play.

In an interview with the Leader-Telegram before the tournament, Faanes explained the origins of the Classic and why it has become such a success and has continued now for 28 years.

“Back in the early 90’s we were looking to start our own Legion Baseball tournament after traveling to several others. Our goal was to make it a top-of-class tournament which I think we have,” Faanes said, adding, “All of the teams have been in the tournament field for many years and we take that as a compliment to what we do.”