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The Ballpark at Schumacher Field in Forest Lake will continue to be
the setting for the Region 1C Baseball Tournament this week. The
hometown Forest Lake Brewers are bidding for a state tournament slot.
(Photo By Clint Riese)
Clint Riese
Sports Editor
The Forest Lake Brewers hope they do not have to care about Sunday’s championship game of the Region 1C Tournament. If the #2 seed takes care of business in Saturday’s semifinal, the town team’s first trip to the state tourney in 12 years will already be clinched.
Riding a win streak entering regionals and bouyed by a home crowd at Schumacher Field, the Brewers (20-10 overall) eased by third-seeded Hinckley 6-2 Sunday night.
A three-run second inning would prove to be all the hosts would need to send the Knights to an elimination game. The Brewers patiently tested Hinckley’s starter as he struggled to find the strike zone. With one out, Forest Lake sandwiched walks to John Mollner, Paul Miron and Brian Welch around a strikeout. Nick Bolin followed with another base on balls, scoring Mollner and setting the stage for Bobby Hager. The second baseman slapped a two-out single to plate two runs.
The lead grew to 4-0 in the fourth with a Bolin RBI single up the middle.
The Knights finally got on the board with an unearned run off Brewers ace Chris Parent in the sixth. But the Brewers struck back in the bottom half, as Mark Miron boomed a two-run home run to expand the lead to 6-1.
Parent carried his regular season success into the playoffs, earning his 10th win of the year with a six-inning outing. He struck out four while allowing only three hits. Ryan Bruns pitched three innings of relief, allowing a run on one hit.
The Brewers will face St. Francis at 7 p.m. on Saturday, as the tourney continues at Schumacher. The Saints stormed back from an early deficit to knock off top-seeded Isanti 15-5 on Sunday.
Forest Lake co-manager Adam Gallatin is eager to take on his team’s Metro Minny League rival.
“[It] should be pretty exciting because of how familiar we are with them,” he says. “They can score a lot of runs in a hurry as they have shown already this tournament, so we just need to keep playing good defense and manufacture some runs of our own. It should be a fun game.”
The winner wraps up a trip to state and moves on to the regional championship game, set for 4 p.m. Sunday.
The winner of Thursday’s Princeton-Mora game will take on Hinckley on Friday. Whoever emerges from there will play Isanti Saturday afternoon for the right to face the Forest Lake-St. Francis loser in a Sunday afternoon semifinal.
Gallatin hopes to avoid the pressure of an elimination game altogether.
“It’s exciting being close to making it to the state tournament, but close doesn’t mean anything,” he says. “We still have to win another game and there are a couple pretty dangerous teams left in the tournament.”
Region 1C Tournament results
Friday
St. Francis 9, Princeton 1
Hinckley 6, Mora 1
Saturday
St. Francis 15, Isanti 5
Forest Lake 6, Hinckley 2
Tournament schedule
Thursday
• Princeton v. Mora, 7:30
Friday
• Princeton/Mora v. Hinckley, 7:30
Saturday
• Princeton/Mora/Hinckley v. Isanti, 4
• St. Francis v. Forest Lake, 7
Sunday
• Winner of Saturday 4 p.m. game
v. Forest Lake/St. Francis loser, 1
• Winner of 1 p.m. game
v. Forest Lake/St. Francis winner, 4
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