‘Living in the moment’ gets North Dakota back to American Legion World Series

The hardest path to an American Legion World Series from the 64-team regional field is a loss in the opening round.

Prior to this season, only 15 teams advanced to the ALWS in the previous 190 regionals after dropping their first regional contest, and none since 2019.

This year, lightning struck three times as Wilmington Delvets (Del.) Post 1, Billings Scarlets (Mont.) Post 4 and Fargo (N.D.) Post 2 recovered from regional-opening losses to reach the ALWS.

And for Fargo, it marks the second time in the last five tournaments to pull off the feat as Post 2 lost its 2019 regional opener before advancing all the way to the ALWS title game against eventual champion Idaho Falls (Idaho) Post 56.

Is it the Fargo way to lose the opener of the regional in order to make the ALWS?

“It must be,” said 12th-year Fargo head coach Luke Rustad. “Maybe we just like playing with a little extra pressure.”

Rustad, who notched his 500th coaching victory earlier this season, thinks the extra pressure also created extra focus from his veteran team that finished fourth in the 2023 Central Plains regional after advancing to the winner’s bracket final of the eight-team tournament.

“We have a veteran team and a team that made it to the regional last year,” said Rustad, whose 2019 team made Fargo’s first ALWS appearance since 1992. “We made it to the undefeated game and then didn’t finish the regional the way we wanted to.

“But with the kids we had coming back, we felt really good about our chances this year.”

In this year’s Central Plains regional at West Fargo, N.D., Elkhorn (Neb.) Post 211 edged Fargo 2-1 in its opening regional game.

“Navigating it back was just playing better in every game,” Rustad said. “I know it’s cliché,

but you have to take it ‘one game at a time.’ If you start thinking about losing or advancing further, you’re not living in the moment. You have to play the game that’s in front of you.”

Post 2 did just that and won the next five games, and all by comfortable margins.

Fargo beat Renner (S.D.) Post 307, 8-2; West Fargo Post 308, 7-4; Cedar Rapids Swisher (Iowa) Post 671, 13-4; Farmington (Minn.) Post 189, 17-3 in five innings; and Swisher again, 9-3 in the regional final. The win over rival West Fargo avenged a 2-1 loss in 10 innings on a walkoff home run in the North Dakota state tournament championship game on Aug. 3.

Sam Ovsak earned Central Plains regional MVP honors as Post 2 clinched its fourth ALWS appearance; Fargo went 0-2 in 1969, 1-2 and 1989 and 1992 and was 3-2 in its 2019 runner-up season.

Rustad hopes the regional turnaround will carry over into this year’s ALWS.

“Hopefully, you just continue to play better each game and get some momentum,” Rustad said.

Fargo Post 2 pool play schedule (all times ET)

Aug. 15: vs. League City (Tex.) Post 554, 10 a.m.

Aug. 16: vs. Troy (Ala.) Post 70, 7 p.m.

Aug. 17: vs. Hudson (Mass.) Post 100, noon