East Ridge Baseball Eliminated From Postseason

While a wind-swept Tuesday afternoon ended in a 10-7 loss, it all started out so well for the baseball team in its second-round Section 4AAA Tournament game against Mounds View at Midway Stadium in St. Paul.

The fifth-seeded Raptors had worked their way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the bottom of the first inning against the No. 4 seed Mustangs and had even taken a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning after Ryan Gregory and David Lang plated Brad Schmit and Grady Rolando with back-to-back sacrifice grounders.

Things just got better for East Ridge with two more runs in the third inning as Schmit drove home Sammon with a two-out RBI single before Rolando's RBI triple sored Schmit to put the Raptors up 4-0.

But it all fell apart from there for coach Brian Sprout's club—Mounds View used a combination of timely hitting and taking advantage of some Raptors' miscues to explode for six runs in the home half of the third to wrest control of the contest away for good.

East Ridge pulled back to within 6-5 in the top of the fourth as a two-out triple from Sammon scored Ryan Betz, but Mounds View tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the frame to chase Raptors starting pitcher Mitch Luebbe and all-but clinch the game.

Relief pitcher Mark Landgrebe came on in relief and pitched what would be East Ridge's final three innings of the season.

The Raptors kept the game interesting by pecking away at the Mustangs' lead with two runs in the fifth as David Lang and Lance Durand drove home Jack Leiviska and Rolando, respectively, but the three-run deficit would prove to be as close as the second-year squad would get.

East Ridge went quietly in the sixth and seventh innings and was eliminated from post-season play with the defeat. The loss dropped the Raptors' final record this spring to 13-9.