In the biggest game of the season United South Central’s Kevin George had his biggest game of the year.

George, who entered the postseason hitting .485 with nine home runs and 30 RBIs, connected for a grand slam in the second inning against Luverne Friday that sparked Post 210 to a 6-4 victory and advanced it to the championship game of the District II playoffs. It’s the furthest a USC team has advanced in the American Legion playoffs. Post 210 met Pipestone for the championship Saturday in Jackson as this edition went to press.

“The best thing about this whole thing is USC is playing on a Saturday in a championship and we’re not going to change a thing,” said Post 210 head coach Pat Frank. “Hopefully we’ll go out and win a couple of baseball games.”

George’s grand slam capped off a six-run second inning for USC and was enough support for starter Nick Fure.

Fure turned in seven gutty innings, allowing four runs on five hits and striking out five. The four runs he allowed were unearned.

Fure got into trouble in the fifth inning after two USC errors started a rally for Luverne as it pushed three runs across to make it a 6-4 game. That was all Luverne would get as Fure retired the side in the final two innings.

The win made up for a 13-3 loss USC suffered earlier in the playoffs to Luverne, which entered the tournament with two losses on the season.

In the first game of the evening USC was matched up with Jackson and it was George who helped to lift his team to victory with seven innings of four-hit ball and his third home run of the playoffs for a 6-1 victory which advanced USC to a rematch with Luverne.

“Kevin George is absolutely playing baseball at a level that is making us continue to go on in this tournament,” Frank said.

George hit a home run in the first inning to put USC up 1-0 and finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a double. Frank described the home run as the fastest he’s seen a ball leave the ballpark. When it landed it put a ding in the roof of teammate William Huper’s car.

USC went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, but six Jackson errors helped Post 210 find runs.

USC 6, Jackson 1

USC 140 010 0 — 6 7 0

Jackson 100 000 0 — 1 4 6

WP — Kevin George 7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 7 K

LP — Phillip Pronk 4 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 5 BB, 0 K

USC 6, Luverne 4

USC 600 000 0 — 6 4 2

Luverne 001 030 0 — 4 5 3

WP — Nick Fure 7 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K