Baseball team hits stride with 3-1 record on the week

The Forest Lake baseball team put together a strong week of action, orchestrating their best stretch of the season by posting a strong 3-1 record through four games on the week. The Rangers picked up a crucial 2-0 shutout win at home against Irondale on Monday, May 6, before narrowly falling to White Bear Lake 4-3 on Wednesday, May 8. But the boys rallied to victory in tight matchups with the Roseville Raiders (1-0) and Mounds View Mustangs (4-3) on Thursday, May 9, and Friday, May 10, respectively.

The squad began its siege with a battle with the Knights at Schumacher Baseball Field, and the bats got going early. The Rangers managed to drive in early runs in the first and second innings, paving the way for a superb defensive effort from the boys the rest of the way to ultimately lock in the 2-0 win. As head coach Kale Henry noted, pitching and defense “is the strength of the team.”

Henry said the team left a few plays out there that eventually cost them their game against White Bear Lake. The Rangers found themselves down 4-0 to the Bears prior to an eventual Forest Lake run, but they ran out of time to fully complete the comeback.

“We gave up four runs – but only two were earned,” Henry said. “The positives obviously are that we were down 4-0, but then scrapped ourselves back into the game to give ourselves another chance to win. The kids really battled back.”

As it’s seemingly become almost of a trend throughout the season, the Rangers continue to be a part of close, low-scoring games due to the overall frame and identity of the team. Henry gave a little insight into how that transpires for his boys, while doubling down on the team’s strengths.

“We continue to have to manufacture runs and score runs in different ways – as I mentioned earlier – pitching and defense is our strength, and that’s how we win baseball games,” Henry stated.

Forest Lake has been involved in a plethora of those low-scoring contests, including a 1-0 win over Irondale on April 15, a 1-0 loss to Stillwater a week later on April 22, a 2-0 loss on May 4 to Park of Cottage Grove, and most recently its 2-0 win over Irondale.

Another tight contest

Another close affair took place on the road against Roseville, where the Rangers set up a 1-0 shutout win, courtesy of its tough defensive efforts yet again. Left-handed pitcher Keenan Bjork allowed himself a masterful performance on the mound – giving up zero runs and only a single hit.

“Keenan [Bjork] was dominant last night,” Henry said. “To give up only one hit – he’s just been outstanding for us and he’s been that way all year for us, he’s just a horse. We know whenever he has the ball, we’re going to have a chance to win the game, and for that matter, all of our pitchers have been playing phenomenal for us throughout the season.”

Henry said the low score games are a product of the team’s strengths in defensive play.

“I think as you look at our scores throughout the season, you’ll notice that it’s almost our trend – that’s the way we play,” Henry said. “We pitch, we play defense, and we have to find timely hits when we have guys on base. We have to use it to our advantage when we do get guys on base to put ourselves in a position to manufacture runs.

“We certainly hang our hat on the pitching and defense aspect of things, that’s what it is – yeah, we would like to get our bats going more – but pitching and defense is going to be our forte moving forward into the playoffs.”

It certainly played a theme in the Rangers’ next game, coming against fellow SEC opponent Mounds View, where Forest Lake earned a 4-3 win at Schumacher to ultimately finish its best four-game stretch of the year. Following the win and establishing an outlook on the back end of the season, Henry gave detail into how his team will continue to overcome the challenges of being within the difficult Suburban East Conference.

“We love the challenge of the SEC honestly – it’s a great challenge, we play all these close games, it helps get us ready for section play,” Henry said. “Playing in it is definitely a challenge, but it helps us compete with some of the top teams in the entire state with lots of close games with the best teams in our division. We are ready for sections, and we see it as an advantage playing in [the SEC].”