Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor

Last Friday’s 4-1 loss at Hastings marked a new beginning for the Forest Lake varsity baseball team.

The barnstorming portion of its season — where they played eight of their first 10 games on the road — is over, which means the boys can unpack at Schumacher Field and focus on getting above .500.

“We’re at the halfway point and we’re still a team that hasn’t played their best game,” head coach Brian Raabe said. “We need to do that very quickly here.”

The Rangers (5-6, 4-5 after Monday’s win), had two difficult match-ups last week, with a Wednesday meeting at Cretin-Derham Hall, followed by the trip to Hastings to face another good team that answers to the Raiders nickname.

Whereas the Cretin game got away from Forest Lake early, the three-run loss to Hastings was always close.

With the score tied 1-1, the Rangers loaded the bases with one out, but failed to turn that opportunity into any sort of cushion.

The Raiders finished the evening with two runs in the bottom of the fifth and one in the sixth inning.

In the top of the seventh, Forest Lake threatened again when they put two more runners on base, but that too evaporated.

“We’re right there, we’re close, but we’re not quite getting the job done,” Raabe said.

One major problem for Forest Lake was dealing with the multi-talented Trent Vedders, who capped off a complete game for Hastings (6-4, 5-4), firing nine strikeouts and giving up only six hits.

“He’s one of the better pitchers that we’ve faced so far this year,” Raabe said of Vedders. “He threw strikes, (and) he has a little bit of zip on the ball.”

Junior Brad Cherveny started for the Rangers and had another quality outing on the mound, lasting into the sixth, before senior Brady Banse took over in a closing effort.

On Wednesday afternoon in St. Paul, the day looked promising when Drew Cremisino hit a home run in the top of the first, but little did the Rangers know, that lead would quickly be erased by an eight-run Cretin reply in the bottom of the inning.

There was a lull in the scoring for both teams, but just when Forest Lake put up its second, and what would turn out to be its final run in the top of the fourth, the Raiders matched that with one in the bottom of the inning. Cretin then “raised” in the fifth, with three more for the decisive 12-2 victory.

The highlights were limited in this one, as starter Trip Schultz was forced out in the first inning to take the loss.

The Rangers managed a mere three hits in the game, but two of those came from Cremisino, who put together a sharp looking box score, despite the loss. The senior shortstop went two-for-two, with a double and the home run, scoring both Forest Lake runs and picking up an RBI.

MONDAY'S GAME

The first of three straight home games began on Monday, April 30, when Roseville visited The Ballpark for a game under the lights.

In their first meeting, the Raiders (yes, one more Suburban East Conference school with that moniker) won the season opener 9-6, after building an early lead.

In the rematch, instead of chasing Schultz off the mound like they did in early April, Roseville (3-7, 2-6) had to suffer through a dominant performance by the Rangers’ starter.

It took all of one batter for Schultz to settle in, and after that the Raiders were shut down. Strikeout after strikeout began to pile up, as Schultz would end the night with a total of 13 in seven innings to earn the 2-1 win.

In completing the stellar effort, Schultz also scored both Forest Lake runs. Garrett Eischen was another key contributor, going two-for-three at the plate and also picking up the game-winning RBI.

Before the game, Raabe talked about the importance of winning the close ones, and this certainly qualified.

“We just need to clean up our game. If we do that we’ll be fine,” he said.

The Rangers have Park (Wednesday) and Mounds View (Friday) at home for night games this week, and then head to White Bear Lake on Monday, May 7 for a 4 p.m. start.

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