Posted: 5/14/03

Young pitches FL past No. 1 New Ulm

Berk Brown
Sports Editor

Forest Lake gave its baseball coach the best homecoming present he could have asked for Friday ñÝa win over his No. 1-ranked alma mater.

Forest Lake (9-6) handed New Ulm, 14-1 and ranked No. 1 in Class AAA, its first loss of the season in the New Ulm Invitational. The upset came on the heels of a 4-3 loss to round-robin tournament champion Lakeville, which made the win even more impressive to head coach Brian Raabe, who graduated from New Ulm and played for Eaglesí coach Jim Senske.

ìAfter (the loss to Lakeville), I challenged the guys,î Raabe said. ìAnd the boys came out fired up against New Ulm and Karl Young pitched the game of his life.î

The Rangers wasted little time in jumping on the Eagles by scoring four runs in the top of the first inning.

Pete Storm and Young had consecutive singles to start the game and a walk by Steve Carlisle loaded the bases. Lance Overson followed with a single which scored two runs.

A fielderís choice later scored Overson and the Rangers tacked on another run to go up 4-0.

A Young double in the fourth inning helped the Rangers to three more runs and Forest Lake secured the win with two more runs in the top of the fifth.

On Saturday, Forest Lake completed the tournament with a 6-4 win over No. 10-ranked Park Center. In the three games at New Ulm, Forest Lake only trailed for one inning, when Lakeville scored three times in the top of the seventh to rally for the 4-3 win.

Raabe said not only the win over New Ulm, but the way the Rangers played in the tournament should give them confidence heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

ìI couldnít be prouder of the guys,î Raabe said. ìThey went out and performed at a high level in New Ulm and gave a total team effort.î

On Monday, Roseville was able to take a 5-3 victory over the Rangers in eight innings in a Suburban East Conference game.

Forest Lake completes play in the SEC this week and has a pair of non-conference games next week before beginning play in the Section 7AAA tournament following Memorial Day weekend.

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