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Baseball team on the upswing |
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Wednesday, 21 May 2008 |
Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
Just as soon as the Forest Lake baseball team appeared to have discovered its true identity by winning five of its last seven games, the Rangers had a misstep on Saturday in a 4-2 loss to Roseville.
Which might reveal exactly what this ball club really is.
At the beginning of this week, only two schools remained on Forest Lake’s regular season schedule (Anoka and Chisago Lakes), and head coach Brian Raabe felt the postseason could go either way for what he describes as his Jekyll & Hyde team.
“It would not surprise me if we made a run in the playoffs, and it would not surprise me if we got beat in the first game.”
The Rangers have defeated two programs that were ranked in the top ten, but have also faltered against squads they should have beaten. What usually hinders Forest Lake’s effort is what appears to be a small error here, or a walk there, or a bad at-bat over there.
But in spite of Saturday’s setback, Raabe is feeling much better about his team’s outlook now as opposed to early in the spring, when his club was losing five straight.
“I’m encouraged by where we’re at this stage of the year,” he said. “We clean up a few things and we’re going to be fairly tough to beat.”
Coming off wins over White Bear Lake and Park of Cottage Grove, Raabe was looking forward to last weekend’s Roseville matchup, which would be played in front of 450 fans.
Brent Kolbow scored in the bottom of the first inning to give the Rangers an early 1-0 lead, but Roseville would get two in the top of the third to put the pressure back on Forest Lake.
“We didn’t play a bad game at all, we really didn’t. However, they out-executed us,” Raabe admitted.
In a bad flashback to April, at one point the Rangers had runners on first and second with no outs, but a bunt went airborne instead of obeying Sir Isaac Newton, and the potential rally was ended with a double play.
“If we execute, and we don’t have some untimely errors that were very routine plays, we win the game, 2-0,” Raabe said.
The “new look” Rangers were on display Wednesday night, May 14, when Forest Lake built a small 1-0 lead after one inning, and then exploded for eight in the third on the way to a 13-2 victory over Park.
Mike Schultz, Matt Zidar and Kyle Jensen all had multi-hit games, with Schultz going 2-for-2 while picking up four RBI.
Raabe explained what worked in classic Raabe style.
“There we had timely hitting, we played very good defense, our pitching threw strikes, and it all equals wins.”
Michael Swenson turned in another steady performance on the mound, where he may not overpower the hitters, but doesn’t walk anyone either, and he allows his defense to make plays.
With a record of 8-10, Forest Lake has a modified expectation it can still reach, as Raabe is not a fan of simply being competitive and staring at the underside of .500.
“We’d love to finish 10-10. That was actually kind of our goal after the first half of the season and we’re right there,” he said.
Box Score
Park 001 10— 2 6 2
Rangers 108 13—13 12 0
Benson, NA (4) and Nordtvedt; Swenson and Evgen. W—Swenson (3-2). L—Benson. Highlights—FL, Michael Schultz, 2-2, 2B, 4 RBIs; Michael Swenson, 3 SO, 0 BB.
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