Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

When it comes to discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the Legion Post 225 baseball team, the comments sound awfully familiar to the Rangerís high school season. Just replace Brian Raabeís thoughts with those of head coach Kale Henry, and it feels a little like Groundhog Day.

ìPitching was outstanding all weekend,î Henry shared. ì(But we) needed to find a way to get timely hits in our losses.î

Recapping the week starts with a trip to Woodbury on Wednesday, July 5, where Forest Lake took care of business on both sides of the plate, and came away with an 8-4 victory.

Brady Banse picked up the win and received plenty of help from Erik Zentzis when the first baseman hit a three-run homer.

The following night, however, did not go so smoothly for Zentzis or the entire Forest Lake team. Post 225 returned home for a game against Mahtomedi and lost 11-2. Zentzis took the defeat, but the two runs by the offense begin to explain coach Henryís desire to see more hitting.

The busy week continued on Friday with the Gopher State Tournament in Maple Grove. Timely hits were in abundance during their first game against host Maple Grove, but those hits were not for Forest Lake.

Post 225 carried a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, only to see Maple Grove get the necessary three runs in their final at-bat. Final score: 6-5. And Forest Lake was suddenly dealing with a two-game losing streak.

In the first of two match-ups on Saturday, July 8, Forest Lake leaned on a terrific pitching performance from David Gauerke to beat Sartell, 4-2.

Gauerke was the complete-game winner, and his help came from Brent Kolbow.

According to Henry, ìKolbow keyed the offense in the tournament,î as he went 9-14 (.642 BA) from the plate.

After the win, Forest Lake had little time to relax because up next was a talented team from Nebraska (Papillion) for the second game of the evening.

Henry described it as an outstanding baseball game, but Post 225 was on the wrong end of a 3-2 score.

Jed Hanson was on the mound for the entire game, but the offense came up a bit short to what proved to be the eventual champions of the Maple Grove pool.

Sunday brought more ups and downs for Forest Lake as they played yet another pair of games to close out the week.

Against St. Louis Park in game one, the team had the perfect mix of pitching and hitting in an 8-0 win.

Jeff Brooks struck out eight batters in just five innings of work; Kolbow cruised along on offense, going 3-3; and Trip Schultz chipped in with a bases-loaded single to drive in two runs.

Those two runs would have been nice to have during the teamís final game against Sioux Falls East.

Playing in their seventh game in five days, Forest Lake dropped a disappointing 2-0 loss.

Post 225 will look to rebound this week as they finish their season with a home game against Park on Thursday, and a road game at Inver Grove on Saturday.

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Forest Lake Times
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Forest Lake, MN 55025
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