Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Two days after Forest Lake’s baseball season came to a depressing conclusion, head coach Brian Raabe offered a succinct summary of the Rangers’ spring.

“We had too many peaks and too many valleys, and the valleys were too deep,” he said.

The final valley was a 3-0 loss to Duluth Central during Game 5 of the Section 7AAA tournament. In a perfect illustration of Raabe’s comments, this shutout came less than 24 hours after both a 23-4 victory over St. Francis on Monday night, which followed a 3-2 downer to the same Duluth Central team on Monday evening.

In a double-elimination tournament, two valleys means game over — here’s your door prize, thanks for playing.

Forest Lake’s summer vacation would begin after they couldn’t solve Central’s pitching for the third time this year (the Rangers lost to the Trojans 4-2 in mid-April).

“We were very confident and ready to play,” Raabe said. “At least I thought we were ready to play.”

One day after seeing his players erupt for 23 runs on 18 hits against St. Francis, Raabe had to stand by and watch his offense get four singles (Drew Cremisino, Garrett Eischen, Trip Schultz and Kyle Young) and zero runs in the Duluth Central “three-match.”

“We had the same problems that we had the first (playoff) game,” Raabe said. “We weren’t taking very good at-bats.”

According to Raabe, the main problem was being too aggressive at the plate, and he explained the matter in Hitting 101.

“If I would get a dollar for every time I said, ‘Stay back,’ I would be a multi-millionaire. The key to hitting is to let the ball come to you and stay back,” he shared.

“What happens is people want to go out and get it. And when you do that, you take away your power, you take away everything, and the only thing you can do is weakly hit the ball. That’s what the pitcher wants you to do.”

During Forest Lake’s time in the field, Schultz pitched the entire game, and despite getting six strikeouts and allowing only five hits, he picked up the loss.

“Duluth Central proved to be a better team and that ended our season,” Raabe said. “That’s just the way it was.”

The enormous peak against St. Francis occurred in the loser’s bracket of the final four tournament. Forest Lake fell to Central in Game 1, and the Fighting Saints were beaten by Duluth East. With both teams choosing the bumpy road to state, there is always the unknown of how each club will respond. The Rangers answered with their biggest offensive game of the year.

“That is why we’re a Jekyll and Hyde team,” Raabe said. “We went from not being able to hit the ball to going off pitching that was, I thought, as good if not even a little bit better at times (than Duluth Central), and we absolutely killed the ball.”

Brad Cherveny got the start and the victory in the blowout, while Nate Crudo and Christian Fogerty chipped in with an inning apiece.

Considering the 23-4 score, the list of offensive stars is extensive.

“Three hours before we couldn’t stay back,” a bewildered Raabe said. “This game we’re hitting the ball all over the field. We’re crushing. Everybody’s hitting. Everybody.”

For example, Eischen went 2-for-2, scored twice and had three RBIs; Joe Berger continued to hit well and collected four RBIs on two doubles; Cremisino joined in with two hits and scored three runs; Brent Kolbow closed out on a superb finish, with two hits, two runs and three RBIs; Schultz had three hits, four runs and three RBIs; and Young went 2-for-3, with an RBI and two runs scored.

Once Forest Lake and St. Francis were out of the way, Duluth Central and Duluth East went back home to decide the section. East would win the spot in state, while the Rangers will re-group from a 10-15 season.

Finishing below .500 didn’t enthuse Raabe, but his team could still circle first-rate wins over Chisago Lakes and Cretin-Derham Hall.

“We had some very, very good moments this year,” Raabe said. “I’m extremely proud of the kids; they worked hard.”

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