A split to start the District II American Legion baseball playoffs for United South Central wasn’t such a bad thing considering the path it had to take.

Post 210 was matched up with Okabena to start the playoffs and that meant going against its ace who won the majority of the team’s games during the regular season. A win against Okabena would lead to a contest with Luverne, a team that entered the state high school tournament with an undefeated record in the spring.

USC pulled off a thrilling 4-2 victory over Okabena with a walk-off homer from Kevin George on a 2-2 count after Okabena had tied the game in the top of the seventh.

Post 210 was up 2-1 entering the seventh after Ned Kalis hit a solo homer in the fourth to give USC the lead and A.J. Dreyer hit an RBI single in the sixth to make it 2-1.

Nick Fure threw five innings and held Okabena to just one run.

George got the win in relief, throwing two innings of two-hit ball.

“To win the game on a walkoff home run can only give the kids that much momentum going into the next game, but it just didn’t happen tonight,” said Post 210 head coach Pat Frank.

Luverne put any thought of an upset to rest quickly with a six-run first inning as it went on to win 13-3 in five innings over USC.

Luverne went on to pound Post 210 for 11 hits and hang four more runs on it in the third.

USC’s only response came in the fifth inning when Kevin George hit an RBI single. William Huper followed with an RBI double and Zach Wigern had a sacrifice fly to score Huper to make it 13-3.

“Luverne is a good-hitting ball club and they came out and showed it tonight,” Frank said.

Post 210 will face the winner of Redwood Falls and Lake Crystal Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

USC 4, Okabena 2

Okabena 000 010 1 — 2 4 1

USC 000 101 2 — 4 6 1

WP — Kevin George 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Luverne 13, USC 3, 5 innings

Luverne 614 20x x — 13 11 1

USC 000 03x x —  3 3 4

LP — Huper 1 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 0 BB, 0 K