Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

For the VFW baseball team, the district playoffs would be the end of the line. Granted, with their up and down, and back and forth play this summer, it wasnít a very straight line, but it was the end, nonetheless.

It began on Thursday, July 27, when Forest Lake was matched up against the No. 2 seed, St. Anthony. The highly ranked opponent lived up to its billing, and with a little help from Forest Lake, they won going away, 12-2.

The crushing blow came in the form of the third inning, where St. Anthony was already leading 4-2. With the help of five walks and two errors by Forest Lake, St. Anthony used four hits to get eight runs and blow things wide open.

The game was over, but assistant coach Dale Hager was pleased to see the team keep their heads up in preparation for Fridayís contest against Cooper in the loserís bracket.

With a disappointing effort behind them the VFW squad played a solid game, but the inability to bring base runners home proved to be the difference.

Cooper won 7-6, but Forest Lake stranded nine runners during the game.

After so many missed opportunities, head coach Jim Bourque felt this was a game Forest Lake should have won. He noted how hard everyone played until the final out, but it was another bad inning that tormented his team.

Or maybe it was the same bad inning as the day before, because it was the pesky third inning that caused problems for Forest Lake.

With four walks, one error and three hits, Cooper was able to ring up five runs and take the game away from Bourqueís boys.

The loss ended the season for the VFW squad and gave them a record of 12-15, but the coaches thought the team played better than its record would indicate.

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