OAK PARK HEIGHTS — A program largely known for pitching and defense, Stillwater used three home runs to overtake Mounds View for an 8-6 Suburban East Conference baseball victory on Wednesday, May 1 at Stillwater Area High School.
Charley Rowan, Joe Fredkove and Owen Maslowski each deposited home runs to power the Ponies (8-2 SEC, 9-2) into the top spot in the conference standings, just ahead of the Mustangs (7-2, 8-2), East Ridge (7-3, 8-3), Cretin-Derham Hall (5-3-1, 5-3-1) and Woodbury (6-4, 6-5) — five teams ranked among the top eight in the Class AAAA state coaches poll.
“As a coach, I had 20 minutes of enjoying that and then you start thinking about East Ridge on Friday,” Ponies coach Mike Parker said of the conference grind. “We’re coming up against another really talented team and then even when you don’t play one of those top-10 teams it’s a team that has beaten one of those top-10 teams. It’s definitely kind of mentally draining to get up for every game, but that’s what makes it fun.”
Mounds View entered the game with just one loss and that came in the season opener, also against the Ponies. Stillwater has won four in a row since a 3-2 loss at White Bear Lake on April 23.
“You don’t really know where people are in the first game and we were both finding out where we are at,” Parker said. “Playing them a second time and facing their top pitcher, it was important for us to prove to ourselves that we’re a good team and can compete with anybody. This should give us confidence moving forward.”
After scoring a run each in the first two innings, Stillwater extended the lead to 3-1 on a solo homer in the third by Rowan, who is batting .529 with four doubles, two home runs and a team-high 12 RBIs this season.
“He’s been our hitting leader and its been huge that he’s continued to do that,” Parker said. “We’ve also played a lot of different guys and have a different lineup every game and it’s been good for other to see different guys get their chances and they’re doing their part. They’ve done a nice job.”
Mounds View stormed back with four runs in the fourth to move in front 5-3, but Maslowski evened the score at 5-all with a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning.
Stillwater added three more runs in the fifth, with the first scoring on a balk and then Joe plated two more with a home run to provide an 8-5 lead.
The Ponies finished with just six hits in the game, which was played on the slightly smaller B field due to conditions on the regular varsity field.
“We had quality at bats throughout the game,” Parker said. “You don’t think of us as a power hitting team, but we have been the last two games. We had the home runs and that obviously makes a difference that we were able to barrel up some balls and able to hit a few hard ones.
Mounds View stranded nine runners on base, compared to just four for the Ponies. Stillwater allowed a run in the top of the seventh but worked out of potential trouble as center fielder Ephram Lanz made a catch and doubled a runner trying to gain second base for the final out of the game. Mounds View also had a runner on third and one of the team’s most dangerous hitters coming to the plate.
Fredkove picked up the win with 1 2/3 innings in relief of starter Dylan Bloom. AJ Levy also notched his third save of the season with two innings of work.
“I thought that our pitchers continued to battle, even when they were struggling to throw strikes and we had some errors,” Parker said.
Mounds View 0 1 0 4 0 0 1 — 6 8 3
Stillwater 1 1 1 2 3 0 x — 8 6 3
WP: Joe Fredkove 1 2/3-ip, 1-h, 3-r, 1-er, 3-bb, 1-so
LP: Ryan Maylone 3-ip, 4-h, 6-r, 4-er, 1-bb, 5-so
Leading hitters: MV, Tyler Guerin 2x2 (3B, RBI), Hayden Sperbeck 1x4 (2B, 2 RBI), Isaac Beseman 1x3 (2B), Nate Edelman 1x1, Thomas Shields 2x4 (RBI) and Aiden Bale 1x3; St, AJ Levy 1x3, Luke Adams 2x4, Charley Rowan 1x2 (HR, RBI), Joe Fredkove 1x2 (HR, 2 RBI) and Owen Maslowski 1x2 (HR, 2 RBI).
Stillwater 10, Irondale 0 (5)
At Oak Park Heights, Alex Boston blasted two of Stillwater’s four home runs in a 10-0 conference victory over Irondale (2-8 SEC, 4-8) in five innings on Monday, April 29 at the SAHS B field. Boston also pitched four shutout innings on the mound, allowing just one hit and two walks with four strikeouts.
Boston finished with three hits in all, racking up five RBIs. Owen Maslowski also doubled and homered while Blake Vanek added three hits for the Ponies, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first and never looked back.
Charley Rowan also drew two walks and belted a home run for Stillwater, which finished with 11 hits in all.
Irondale 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 1 2
Stillwater 3 1 3 0 3 — 10 11 0
WP: Alex Boston 4-ip, 1-h, 0-r, 0-er, 2-bb, 4-so
LP: Jax Marshall 3-ip, 6-h, 7-r, 7-er, 3-bb, 1-so
Leading hitters: Ir, Elliott Gustafson 1x1; St, Charley Rowan 1x1 (2 BB, HR, RBI), Jack Runk 1x1, Blake Vanek 3x4 (RBI), Alex Boston 3x3 (2 HR, 5 RBI), Ty Schroeder 1x1 (RBI) and Owen Maslowski 2x3 (2B, HR, RBI).
Stillwater 3, C-D Hall 2
At Oak Park Heights, the Ponies scored three runs in the seventh inning to rally for a 3-2 conference victory over Cretin-Derham Hall on Friday, April 26 at SAHS.
The Raiders scored two runs in the top of the first inning and the teams went scoreless until Stillwater capped the game with three in the bottom of the seventh.
Joe Fredkove struck out eight batters and didn’t allow a walk while giving up just one hit in three innings of relief to get the win. He kept the Ponies in the game until the bats finally came alive.
Henry Mested drove a pinch hit single to spark the Ponies in the seventh. Then with one out, Fredkove drew a walk and Blake Vanek singled to load the bases. Gus Swenson hit into a fielder’s choice to score pinch runner Grayson Zurn and AJ Levy followed with a single to plate Fredkove and even the score at 2-all. After a walk to Luke Adams to load the bases, Charley Rowan pushes the winning run across on a drive to the gap in right-center.
“Charley came through again,” Ponies coach Mike Parker said. “We really battled. We grounded into three double plays and just had some bad luck with hard-hit balls, but they just kept battling and then came through in the seventh.”
Karson Foster started and threw four innings for Stillwater, allowing two hits and four walks with six strikeouts.
C-D Hall 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 2 3 1
Stillwater 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 — 3 8 3
WP: Joe Fredkove 3-ip, 1-h, 0-r, 0-er, 0-bb, 8-so
LP: Davon Castro 3-ip, 6-h, 3-r, 3-er, 2-bb, 1-so
Leading hitters: C-DH, Joe Fenlon 1x4, Jake Quinn 1x2 and Blake Bullis 1x3; St, AJ Levy 1x4 (RBI), Charley Rowan 3x4 (RBI), Henry Mested 1x1, Blake Vanek 2x3, Jack Runk 1x2 and Gus Swenson 0x1 (RBI).
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