ALEXANDRIA — The Alexandria baseball team established itself as one of the top Class 3A programs in the state this spring through the regular season.
Alexandria will be a top-two seed in the section playoffs that open up on May 31. The team the Cardinals faced in the regular-season finale on Thursday, Detroit Lakes, entered the doubleheader with a 12-4 record and will likely be the fifth seed when the 8-3A field is officially seeded by the QRF through Minnesota-scores.net on May 27.
“It’s definitely gotten a lot better since last year,” Alexandria senior first baseman Nate Hammerback said of the section. “Last year, I think we were all kind of young and didn’t know what to expect. Now that we’ve got a big group of seniors, I think we’re ready to compete. I think we can honestly take on anyone in this section.”
The Cardinals (15-5) swept the Lakers (12-6) on Thursday to go into the postseason on a six-game winning streak. They won the nightcap 11-3 after taking game one in six innings by a 12-2 score.
The Cardinals scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth in game two behind a two-run single from Caleb Runge and RBI singles from Nate Knoll and Brock Lerfald.
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Alexandria blew game one open with a six-run fourth inning. Lerfald delivered the big hit of that frame with a 3-run double before Jaxon Schoenrock, JD Hennen and Hammerback drove in a run apiece to make it 11-2.
Will Suchy ended the game in six innings with a bases-loaded, two-out single that scored a run to enact the 10-run rule.
Parker Jendro went four strong innings in game one to get the win. He allowed two runs in the fourth before Nick Levasseur shut the door over the final two frames.
Detroit Lakes bounced back with two first-inning runs in game two, but Alexandria immediately scored three of its own in the first, led by a Hennen run-scoring single.
Hennen started game two on the mound and settled in nicely after the first inning. The hard-throwing righty allowed three runs and struck out 10 in 5 1/3 innings before Spencer Schmidt came on in relief for him with two runners on in the sixth. Schmidt struck out two after allowing a single to preserve a 6-3 lead.
The performances by Jendro, Hennen, Levasseur and Schmidt are part of a season-long trend. The Cardinals’ pitching staff entered Thursday with an ERA of 2.01 with 137 strikeouts in 121.2 innings pitched. Alexandria is limiting teams to a section-low 2.8 runs per game.
“The energy just gets carried over,” Jendro said. “If someone does good, the next person most likely does good. Or if someone is struggling a little bit, then we get the next person ready to go… It’s just throwing strikes. Let them hit it to our infielders and outfielders. Just get outs.”
Alexandria got some insurance for Hennen in game two against the Lakers with good base running in the third inning.
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Lerfald led off with a single and was on third base with two outs three batters later. Schmidt, a pinch runner, got in an intentional rundown between first and second as Lerfald broke for home and scored to make it 4-2 before Schmidt was tagged out.
Alexandria’s ability to execute well to manufacture runs is a part of its offense. The Cardinals drove in three runs with deep sacrifice flies from Suchy, Lerfald and Hennen in game one.
Alexandria averages almost six runs per game. Lake Hagen, Caleb Runge and Lerfald lead the way at the top of the lineup with all three hitting over .350.
Hagen came into Thursday hitting .426 with a team-high 23 RBIs. Lerfald followed up his big game in game one against Detroit Lakes with a four-hit, 3-RBI game two.
“It’s great. We do feed off a lot of each other,” Hammerback said. “If one guy gets on, it’s the next guy up. Just have to put the ball in play. We really have limited our strikeouts, which has helped us a lot. Good things happen when you put the ball in play.”
Alexandria is excited about the opportunity in front of it now with the playoffs up next. The Cardinals came into Thursday with a slightly higher ranking in the QRF than Willmar, but Willmar holds the head-to-head tiebreaker with a doubleheader sweep of Alexandria on May 13.
Alexandria is currently the fifth highest-ranked team in Class AAA through the QRF. Willmar (13-5) is sixth, Rocori (11-7) is 10th and Sauk Rapids-Rice (11-6) is 11th, while Detroit Lakes and Little Falls (9-9) round out the six-team field.
“The section is incredibly difficult,” Munsch said. “Little Falls is the sixth seed, and they have one of the better pitchers in the section in my opinion. I don’t think anybody can expect they’re going to win a game or try to get by with squeaking through. Everyone will pitch really well. It’s going to come down to making sure we don’t allow free bases and making the plays and getting timely hits. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
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Munsch said he expects games to be closer next week than the 12-2 and 11-3 finals they saw on Thursday. The Cardinals are 4-3 this season in games decided by two runs or less.
“Hitting, pitching and defense are the three things we need to do well. We just have to keep all those things going,” Hammerback said. “I think this is the best we’ve looked so far this season, and it’s perfect timing going into section playoffs.”
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