Tuesday: Tuesday saw G2 of the Sweepers makeup series. Rob McLain and Dominic Oldfield combined to stiffle the dairy-laden Sweeper bats. Brandon Laesch led the way offensively with 3 hits as we cruised to a 9-1 win.

Sunday - The last regular season Sunday of the year took us down to Cottage Grove. We jumped on the Yotes early, Brandon had an rbi double in the top of the 1st. Tanner Anderson, Michael Walsh and Jackson Nelson all had doubles as part of a 3 run 2nd. We added 1 more on a Brenden Faulkner rbi double in the 3rd. Our offense was quiet after that but the combination of Grant-Lucky-Brenden on the bump helped us hold on for a 5-2 win.

The game 2 scoring opened in the 2nd when Eli Puchner brought home 2 on a rbi single. The Yotes grabbed a 6-3 lead after 5. We battled back with 1 in the 6th and moved within 1 in the 7th. We got the tying and winning runs on base but couldn’t bring them around. 

Forgotten Star Player of the Week: Michael Walsh 4/7 2B 2R RBI

Our regular season ends with a record of 13-9 and 4th place in the National League Division. We’ll face the Saints next Saturday in the first round of the playoffs. We split with them earlier this season so we expect a good battle. 

Tuesday - Sweepers Makeup: Tuesday night we took to the field for makeup game 1 vs the Sweepers. With this being our 3rd of 7 games in a 10 day stretch we sent Rob McLain to the hill in hopes of keeping the momentum rolling and boy oh boy did Rob do just that. Rob turned in what will be one of the more memorable pitching performances in Legends history. Rob delivered a complete game shutout gem with 14 of the 15 outs coming via a strikeout. The other out recorded was a caught stealing in the 1st inning. 14 strikeouts sets a Legends single game record that is bound to sit atop the record books for a looooong time. Offensively Tanner Anderson stayed hot with a 2 run single and Keir Anderson had a rbi double of his own. Keir also blasted a home run to left field disrupting the neighboring kickball game.

Sunday - Our last home series of the year saw the battle of Fridley vs the Donks. We struck first as Brandon Laesch battled through a 7 pitch at bat before breaking through with an rbi single in the bottom of the 1st. Unfortunately our defense let us down as a pair of errors in the 3rd handed the Donkeys 2 runs, both with 2 outs. Our offense couldn’t find any answers as we went down 3-1.

We fell behind 4-0 quickly in game 2. In the top of the 4th Lucky would double and score on an errant pick off attempt. Jackson Nelson singled to bring home Michael Walsh. In the bottom half of the 4th Brenden Faulkner kept the game at 4-2 with the highlight being his pickoff of a runner at 3rd. In the top of the 5th we looked to keep the momentum rolling as we loaded the bases with nobody out but we’d come up empty handed after 3 straight strikeouts. Game 2 ended in a 5-3 final in favor of the Donkeys. 

Forgotten Star Player of the Week: Rob McLain for his Legends record setting 14 strikeout performance Tuesday vs the Sweepers.

Week 11 Preview: The final week of the season will be another busy one. We’ll finish the makeup series with the Sweepers Tuesday and then head down to the little league field in Cottage Grove to finish the season with the Coyotes. Playoff seeding is wide open as we could end up as high as 3 and as low as 5.

On yet another hot summer Sunday, the Legends returned to their home district to take on the Tomcats.

Game 1 scoring opened in the bottom of the 1st when Brandon Laesch drove in Jackson Nelson via a sac fly. The Tomcats took advantage of our sloppy defense and plated 3 in the 3rd, briefly putting themselves in the driver’s seat... In the bottom of the 6th we were able to start a 2-out rally. Charlie Jones came through with a clutch 2 out walk to load the bases. Good things can happen when you put the ball in play and Jackson Nelson did just that. Two runners came across to score to tie the game on a Tomcats error. Brenden Faulker would follow that up with a 2-run single to give us the lead. Lucky locked in down in the top half of the 7th and Game 1 went our way, 5-3. 

The Legends carried momentum into Game 2, leading 2-1 in the top of the 3rd when Jared Anderson moved himself into a 3-way tie for the Legends’ all-time home run lead with a 2-run shot to right center. We’d add 2 more Coors Lights, uh, I mean runs in the 4th as Andrew Young tripled and scored on a Jackson Nelson single. Nelly would eventually score thanks to a Brandon Laesch double. In the 6th Grant Ryerse took back sole possession of the Legends HR lead with a shot of his own. 3 pitches later Brandon Laesch made it back to back jacks with his first career Legends bomb. Christian Holcomb had it working on the mound from first pitch to last call, striking out 9 in a complete game effort which certainly passed the eye test. …and the balance on one leg test…and the walk-the-line test….

Forgotten Star Player of the Week: Brandon Laesch for his first career Legends home run.

Week 10 Preview: Week 10 will see a makeup with the Sweepers this Tuesday followed by the renewing of our rivalry with the Sea Donkeys next Sunday. Every game is important for playoff seeding now. 

Week 8 brought our friends in the Babycakes to Fridley HS. Game 1 saw a pitchers duel between a pair of aces in Trevor Rankin and Grant Ryerse. Both pitchers traded zeros through 5 innings. The Babycakes broke through on a RBI single in the top of the 6th. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the 6th Tanner Anderson came through with a 2 run single to give us the lead. In the 7th we handed the ball to Brenden Faulkner who shut the door picking up his 2nd save of the season.

All throughout the day but especially in game 2 the story became the crazy bounces all over the field. Singles turned into doubles and triples. Thankfully for us these tended to go our way. Jared Anderson broke up a 1-1 tie in the 3rd with a 2 run double that would give us the lead for good. Christian Holcomb battled through 5 solid innings before handing the ball over to Jon Lucktenberg. Lucky did what Lucky does best and pounded the zone, striking out 2 in a perfect pair of innings to close out the win. 

Forgotten Star Player of the Week:

Tanner Anderson: game winning 2 run single in game 1.

Week 9 Preview: Next week brings the Tomcats to Fridley. The Tomcats have proven to be a torn in our side at times over the years including sweeping us last year. We’ll look to return the favor Sunday and hope maintenance remembers to run the sprinklers at Fridley this week. 

Our bats followed the weather this weekend and came out hot. Collectively we had 29 hits (11 for extra bases!), 17 walks and 7 HBP as we scored 41 runs across the 2 games. 13 different Legends had at least 1 hit with Jackson Nelson leading the way with 5 of his own. Eli Puchner hit his first career HR in a Legends uniform on an inside the park shot in G2. 

Co-Forgotten Star Players of the Week:

Jackson Nelson: 5/8 2-2B 3B 3R 7RBI HBP SB

Tanner Anderson: 4/5 2B 5R 5RBI HBP BB 2SB

Week 8 Preview: Back at 0.500 we will welcome the Babycakes to Fridley HS. We’ll look to carry the offensive momentum into this important series.

Congrats to our 2026 All Stars Brenden Faulkner (OF/P) and Brandon Laesch (C)!

New to the Legends in 2026 Brenden has quickly earned himself a spot near the top of the lineup. Brenden has a line of 0.394/0.459/0.515. His 13 hits leads the Legends and sits 5th in the TCMABL. A dual threat Brenden has been a big part of our bullpen so far. He has 8.1 IP 9K and a 1.68 ERA.

Also a 2026 free agent signing Brandon has proven to be a big part of the squad. Brandon has a line of 0.450/0.500/0.600. All 3 are team leads. Defensively he is a wall behind the plate. 

Sometimes all you need is a little spark to get things rolling. A bleeder through the infield or a diving catch but for us today it was the return of one of the best players to dawn a Legends uniform: Grant Ryerse.

With other starting pitching options dealing with injuries we gave the ball to Grant and Grant did exactly what we grew accustomed to over the years: he shoved. Grant tossed a complete game only yielding 4 hits while striking out 3. The Giants were able to twart some threats as we had runners in scoring position in the 3rd, 4th and 6th innings. Trailing 2-0 entering the 7th Michael Walsh started the rally with a single to right. Jackson Nelson followed it up with a single of his own. Brenden Faulkner continued to crush baseballs as he came through with a game tying double. Grant Ryerse gave us the lead with a RBI single. Jared Anderson, Brandon Laesch and Eli Puchner would add singles of their own and Carl Engbretson drove in a run via a sac fly. Fresh off a 3 hour car ride Tanner Anderson smoked a double to bring in 1 more. The Giants would get 2 back in the bottom half but game 1 went to the good guys 7-4. 

The Giants were able to jump out to a lead early in game 2. Christian Holcomb fought through some early struggles to complete 4 solid innings. Brenden Faulkner kept us in it with 3 shutout innings in relief. Michael Walsh had a RBI double to cut the Giants lead to 4-1 in the 7th. We brought the tying run to the plate but weren’t able to complete the rally this time.

With 1 week left until the 4th of July break we’ll try to use this week as a momentum builder. 

Forgotten Star Player of the Week goes to Grant Ryerse. CG W 7IP 4ER 4H 2BB HBP 3K and added 2 hits of his own including the go ahead RBI single in G1.

Looking to clean up some sloppy defense over the past couple weeks we were excited to have SS Michael Walsh back in the fold this week. Walshy wasted no time by starting a 6-4-3 double play in the top of the 1st to get us out of an early jam. The Cardinals would strike first over the next couple innings to jump out to a 4-0 lead. In the bottom of the 3rd we answered back with 2 runs of our own highlighted by some heads up base running by Jared Anderson's steal of home. Trailing 5-2 entering the 6th the train got off the rails as the Cardinals put up a 10 spot. We emptied the bench in the bottom half and managed 2 runs but game 1 went to the Redbirds 15-4 in 6. 

Jackson Nelson got us going right from the jump in game 2 with a leadoff double. He later scored on a Jared Anderson single. Dylan Verschleiser brought him home 2 batters later with an rbi single of his own. Our lead grew to 3 in the top of the 2nd after Jon Lucktenberg doubled and scored on a Jackson Nelson rbi single. In the bottom of the 3rd the Cardinals would take the lead for good behind a grand slam. We'd manage to add a couple more runs but ultimately fell 9-5.

Forgotten Star Player of the Week goes to Brandon Laesch 3/5 2B BB

Now sitting at 3-5 it won't get any easier as next week we visit the Giants. The Giants sit at 7-1 and atop the TCMABL. The injuries continued to pile up this week so our depth and resilience will be tested over the next few weeks. 

For week 3 we headed to Stillwater which always seems to bring the hot weather. Our defensive struggles continued out of the gate as 4 unearned Saints runs came around to score in the 1st. We got 2 back in the 2nd and then 3 consecutive hits from Carl Engbretson, Will Gustafson and Keir Anderson tied it up in the 3rd. Jon Lucktenberg and Brenden Faulkner had rbi singles to give us a 7-5 lead after 6. In the top of the 7th Keir Anderson laced a double off the wall and Lucky brought him home with his first career TCMABL triple. Jackson Nelson stranded the tying run at first locking down a 6 out save to secure the 8-6 W. 

Game 2 will be one we will want back. Christian Holcomb picked up right where he left off in week 1 and was dominant all day. Christian delievered 8 innings of shutout ball (and 6.2 of no-hit ball) before the Saints managed to squeak an unearned run across in the 9th. We had plenty of missed opportunities throughout the day to get the 1 run we needed. Jackson Nelson lead off the 3rd with a triple and we were unable to capitalize. In the bottom of the 8th we had 2 on 1 out and did not score. 

After 3 weeks we sit at 3-3 and in 3rd place in the division. Next week will be the 2nd of 3 straight important divisional matchups as the Cardinals will make a visit to Fridley HS. Hopefully the friendly confines of Fridley will help clean up the defense and get the bats going. As we will be on the road on the actual day, next week we will celebrate Father’s Day with our annual cookout. 3 Legends have become dads this past year so we will have plenty to celebrate. 
 

Forgotten Star Player of the Week goes to Christian Holcomb. Christian went 9IP 2H 1R 2BB 5K.

Week 2 brought us to Frank Quilici Field to face the North Stars. Unfortunately there isn’t much good to talk about from this series. We left our rock solid defense from week 1 behind as 8 errrors and plenty of other sloppy play cost us. Credit to the North Stars as they took full advantage and played solid defense themselves. In looking for some positives Brandon Laesch had 3 hits on the day and Brenden Faulkner added 2. Carl Engbretson hit a HR to tie for all time Legends lead. Charlie Jones was fantastic on the mound through 3+ before the defense let him down. We’ll look to flush this series and bounce back next week as we travel to Stillwater. A big division matchup awaits us in the Saints. 

Forgotten Star Player of the Week goes to Brandon Laesch. Brandon went 3/5 2B BB RBI 2R