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Glen Strandberg
Sports Editor
Give ‘em a little sunshine, get ‘em outdoors and watch what happens.
Two days after the Forest Lake baseball team (5-8, 3-8) had head coach Brian Raabe’s frustration level cranked up to 11, the Rangers came back to beat a very good Woodbury club, and topped it off with a victory over Roseville the following afternoon.
“The biggest thing we got with both of those wins was we started playing with a winning attitude again,” Raabe said. “When the games were close and everything was nip and tuck, instead of making the crucial error or not getting a timely hit, we did those things.”
The Woodbury Royals entered Wednesday’s matchup with seven wins and only one loss, but the pitching of Michael Swenson, the Forest Lake defense, and the hitting of Corey Manning, Kyle Young and Brent Kolbow gave the Rangers a 5-3 victory.
Raabe praised Swenson’s effort, as the junior went all seven innings, gave up six hits, struck out two, and didn’t walk a single batter.
“When you don’t walk anybody, that’s a big part of our game,” Raabe said.
Another factor in this contest was how Forest Lake was the team that made the comeback. Down 2-0 after two innings, the Rangers scored twice in the bottom of the third, and added three more in the fifth inning.
“This time, they flinched, we didn’t and that was the difference,” Raabe said.
On May 1, Forest Lake traveled down to Roseville and returned home with a 3-1 win.
The Rangers’ offense could come up with just seven hits, but Kyle Jensen limited the Raiders to a paltry three in seven innings, walking two and striking out four.
“Our pitching was outstanding,” Raabe said of Swenson and Jensen. “Both of them gave us a chance to win, our defense was very good and we had a couple of timely hits. When you add all of those things together they equal wins.”
Matt Zidar had himself a ballgame at the plate, going 3-for-3, with a double and two RBI. Corey Manning added two hits and also scored a run.
“I can’t be any prouder of the boys. Obviously we’ve struggled a little bit here early in the year and we come back with back-to-back wins on two fairly tough teams,” Raabe shared.
Cretin wins, 7-1
With Monday’s 7-1 loss at Cretin-Derham Hall, the Rangers have yet to win three straight this spring.
The Raiders jumped on Swenson with one run in the first, and added four more in the third, thanks in large part to a three-run dinger by Max Gregory.
Box Score
Woodbury 020 000 1—3 6 0
Rangers 002 030 x—5 8 2
Wagner, Eddy (5) and Eddy, NA (5); Swenson and Evgen. W—Swenson (2-1). L Wagner.
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