It’s been pointed out before that when it comes to discussing the 2007 Forest Lake baseball team, it’s virtually impossible to sense how they will play from one game to the next. A good outing could be followed by a disaster, or a four-game losing streak could end with an improbable upset.

After a stunning 7-1 win over No. 1 ranked Cretin-Derham Hall on May 16, there was hope that maybe, just maybe, the Rangers will simply play up to the level of their competition. With the postseason beginning in less than a week, that was certainly an encouraging thought.

But then came a 9-2 loss to a very good Hastings team, followed by a 6-1 defeat to an even stronger Chisago Lakes program, and it was back to the mysterious riddle that is Forest Lake.

Who knew what to expect when the Rangers (7-13) hosted Elk River (8-12) on Tuesday, May 29 in the opening round of the Section 7AAA playoffs?

The first inning started slowly, as Elk River’s starting pitcher Zach Petchell had a difficult time finding the strike zone. But by the second inning it seemed like every time he put one over the plate, Forest Lake turned it into small-ball offense.

Mike Schultz reached base on a walk, Joe Berger picked up a hit, Travis Evgen laid down a perfect bunt, and then Christian Fogerty brought two runners home.

Trip Schultz got one to drop in no-man’s land behind second base, and that scored Evgen. Trip Schultz moved over to second, and he scored on a Drew Cremisino single to left field.

Heading to the third inning it was 4-0 in favor of the Rangers, and that would be more than enough for their starter, Brady Banse.

“We played great, but this is the time you want to play well, and we did play well,” Forest Lake’s head coach Brian Raabe said after the methodical 9-0 win.

“Brady Banse was sensational. He’s a senior and that’s what you’d expect from senior leadership. He went out there, took the ball, threw a one-hitter (and) did a great job.”

Working into the one-hit shutout, Banse allowed only one other base runner and struck out six.

“In the bullpen I was hitting my spots,” Banse said. “And coach Tal (Gravelle) said you gotta bring confidence and bring it on the mound, and that’s what I did.”

Forest Lake would end the night with 16 hits, and only one of those would go for extra bases, on a Nate Crudo double.

Berger went three-for-four; Cremisino was two-for-three with one RBI; Evgen, recently moved from catcher to play second base, filled out the box score with two hits, two RBIs and one run; Fogerty picked up two hits and two RBIs; Mike Schultz had three hits in three at-bats, scored three times and brought in one RBI.

The offensive outburst and six stolen bases improved the team’s outlook going into Thursday’s game at top-seeded Chisago Lakes, and it’s 19-2 record.

“They’re very, very good, we know that,” Raabe said, referring to the 6-1 loss that occurred the previous week.

“We’re very, very confident. We’ve got our No. 1 on the mound (Trip Schultz), and he’s a senior. He looks for these big games like this, so he gets a big game.”

From a Forest Lake perspective, the trip to Chisago Lakes couldn’t have gone any better. While Tuesday turned into Singles Night, the Rangers came out in the top of the first and started ripping doubles.

Trip Schultz hit one, and then he was knocked home by a double from Cremisino. Little did anyone know that Schultz would be scoring the game-winning run on Cremisino’s game-winning RBI.

After Kyle Young (two-for-four, three RBIs), forced the Wildcats’ outfield to scramble again, Cremisino’s run would make it 2-0.

“They’re (Chisago) a very, very talented team,” an energized Raabe stated after the 8-0 victory. “The thing that was different, though, was we had a pitcher that was on and we jumped on them early. So then we could start doing a lot of things to put pressure on them, and we took them out of their game.”

Whereas Dan Kaiser was exceptional as Chisago’s pitcher in the first meeting, he would get pulled in the second inning of this contest when the Rangers went up 3-0 on a Brent Kolbow single that scored Garrett Eischen.

While Kaiser was struggling, Schultz was just getting warmed up.

Schultz said he hadn’t really found “it” in the first inning, but it all came together in the second.

“I was just like, OK, here we go, and then I didn’t even have to think about it tonight,” he shared. “Some were going to be strikes and some were going to be balls, but everything felt really, really good.”

By the time the Wildcats came to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning, the No. 2 ranked team in the metro rankings was down 8-0. That score would hold as Schultz handed the ball over to hard-throwing Myles Carlson in the seventh to pick up the save.

Until that final out, however, Schultz was thinking about a certain football game — where Forest Lake watched a 27-6 lead turn into a 27-26 loss at Blaine during the Section 7AAAAA playoffs

“I’m not doing that twice in one year,” he joked after his six-inning, four hit, seven strikeout performance.

“Surprisingly, the way this year’s gone, you’d think we’d all be down and stuff. But that one win on Tuesday, all of sudden we feel like we’re the No. 1 team in the state.”

Raabe was having similar thoughts as he spoke about a club that had a .350 winning percentage in the regular season.

“We were on a down note, and these guys have pulled together and said, ‘That’s not the way we’re going to end it.’

“We’ve been in that spot before and it’s not a lot of fun,” he said with a nod to a depressed Chisago Lakes dugout. “So it was sure a lot of fun today to be able to be the underdog. They were supposed to win, not us.

Now Forest Lake is in the final four of the section, where they will host Duluth Central at Schumacher Field on Monday, June 4 at 3 p.m.

With a win they would play another home game at 7 p.m. against the winner of St. Francis/Duluth East. A loss to Duluth Central would send the Rangers up to Chisago for Game 2.

“Every team we play, we’re not expected to win,” Raabe said. “But I will tell ya, Forest Lake will show up.”

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