The Forest Lake baseball season may have come to a disappointing conclusion on Wednesday evening, but the team's final loss to St. Francis can not tarnish what amounts to as a terrific year for the Rangers.

"I can't tell you how proud I am of this group," head coach Brian Raabe said. "We did the best we could, and each and every player left their heart and soul out on the field."

The Rangers battled back from a loss to St. Francis on Monday by beating Grand Rapids 6-1 on Tuesday. This earned Forest Lake the opportunity to play the Saints again for a trip to the state finals. The only catch was that the Rangers needed to beat St. Francis twice, which proved to be a difficult assignment.

In the first game, Forest Lake continued its trend of starting fast and put up two runs in both the first and second innings. Erik Zentzis was on the mound for the Rangers and he limited the Saints to one run in each of the first four innings. With both teams failing to score in the fifth, sixth or seventh, it was time for another thrilling finish as the tie ballgame went to extra innings.

Enter Jed Hanson - who is expected to be named the Metro Player of the Year by the Star-Tribune on Thursday evening - who not only would hit the game-winning home run in the top of the eighth, but he would also step in with one out and get the save in the 5-4 victory.

"Jed is truly a gifted player," Raabe said. "I'm just proud I had a chance to coach him."

The win meant the same two teams would play one more time in the double-elimination tournament, but the second game was a different story. There would be no quick start for the Rangers on offense, and the Saints went marching off with a 9-2 victory.

After the grind of playing their fifth game in three days, Raabe tried to find a live arm in his line-up and used four different pitchers to combat Jake Draeger of St. Francis.

"He showed why he's their No. 1 pitcher," Raabe said of Draeger. "He shut us down. He scattered hits is what he did."

The loss could not dampen Raabe's thoughts on an outstanding season as well as a great two-year run. The team finished 21-6 in 2006 and went 37-11 during the past two campaigns.

"It truly is a celebration of a great year," Raabe said.

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