A trip to the American Legion state baseball tournament looked imminent for the United South Central baseball team, but it might have all come too quickly.

A night after pulling off the biggest win of the season USC (17-8) looked poised to roll to a championship win in the District II playoffs in Jackson Saturday, but Pipestone withstood an early 5-0 deficit to pull off an 8-6 win.

Post 210 took a 5-0 lead after the second inning, but Pipestone rallied for four runs in the second inning and took a 6-5 lead in the fourth.

Ned Kalis tied the game in the fifth with a solo homer, but Pipestone came back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning.

Pipestone had just four hits in the game, but six walks and three errors were the demise of USC.

“Tonight the tank got a little empty,” said USC head coach Pat Frank. “These kids played their hearts out and they did a great job all year long. We competed hard and we left everything out on the field and that’s what you have to do in districts.”

The loss ended a surprising tournament run for USC, which defeated Jackson and Luverne Friday night to advance to the title game.

“The exposure these kids had in the last three weeks is going to make for a better ball club next year,” Frank said. “You can only build off of games like this.

Pipestone 8, USC 6

USC 230 010 0 — 6 6 2

Pipestone 040 220 x — 8 4 3

LP — A.J. Dreyer 2 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K