Minnesota Scene: Fargo beats Excelsior in Central Region final in Legion baseball

Fargo emerged from the losers' bracket and became the American Legion Central Plains Regional champion Sunday, beating Excelsior 8-0 and 3-2 in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Excelsior had won four games in the tournament and had lost only two other games all season, finishing 56-4.

Fargo advances to the American Legion World Series, which begins Thursday in Shelby, N.C.

Tournament MVP Taylor Parrett pitched a five-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts in Fargo's 8-0 victory in the first game.

John Hanson was 3-for-3 for Excelsior.

In the second game, Brandt Kolpack's sacrifice fly in the sixth inning gave Fargo a 3-2 lead.

Michael Sturek had an RBI double for Excelsior.

Excelsior defeated Fargo 17-11 on Wednesday in the first round.

After the host Saints came back from an early six-run deficit to tie the score in the bottom of the eighth inning, Gary scored four runs — three on a home run by Raymond Jones — his second homer of the game — in the ninth inning and beat the Saints 11-7 at CHS Field.

Dan Motl and Michael Lang each drove in two runs for the Saints. Motl's two-run single in the eighth tied the score.

Also Sunday, the Saints signed outfielder Jabari Henry, who hit .250 with a home run and four RBI in 15 games with the Atlantic League's Sugar Land Skeeters before an injury stopped him. He hit 29 home runs for Sioux Falls of the American Association in 2017 and 13 more last year.

Royal Cash Flash won the $72,300 Gopher State Futurity by a half-length Sunday at Canterbury Park. Ridden by the track's leading quarter-horse jockey, Jorge Torres, and trained by Clinton Crawford, Royal Cash Flash paid $7 as the favorite.

• Former Gophers gymnast Hannah Hitchcock was added to the coaching staff as a voluntary assistant. She was a graduate assistant coach in the 2018-19 season and was an all-Big Ten second-team pick in 2017-18.