Park baseball: Wolfpack climbs out of cellar

The rollercoaster ride continued for the Park baseball team this past week.

Following Suburban East Conference wins over Woodbury and Hastings, the Wolfpack dropped games to SEC foes White Bear Lake and East Ridge to go 2-2 in its past four games.

With the pair of wins, however, Park pulled itself out of the SEC cellar and into ninth place in the 10-team conference. The Wolfpack is now 4-12 overall and 4-11 in the SEC.

Most recently, East Ridge (7-10; 7-8 SEC) defeated Park for a second time this year, 7-3 on Monday. For the Raptors, starting pitcher Drew Molin earned the win. The sophomore threw a complete game, allowing seven hits and two earned runs while striking out seven. East Ridge junior Ryan Gregory was the offensive star of the game from the plate, going 3-for-4 with two RBI.

Before falling to East Ridge, Park beat Hastings 3-2 and lost to White Bear Lake 6-3 after beating rival Woodbury 5-4 last Monday.

Starting pitcher Kyle Fritz earned the win for Park against the Royals (8-10; 6-9 SEC). The senior went 6 1/3 innings allowing five hits and two earned runs while striking out four. Fellow senior Drew Flack earned the save, getting the final two outs of the game while striking out one.

Park had little offensive success in the win however. Despite scoring five runs, the Wolfpack mustered only three hits in the game. Park drew four walks, was hit by pitches five times and took advantage of two errors by the Royals, helping the Wolfpack to the win.

Jake Carrigan led the way for Park from the batter’s box, going 1-for-2 with two walks and a run scored and Fletcher Rheault was 2-for-4. In addition, J.T. Bickel and Spencer Diedrich each scored runs and had RBIs.

Next, Park travels to Mounds View (10-5; 10-5 SEC) on Wednesday, before putting a cap on the regular season against Cretin-Derham Hall (13-4; 13-3 SEC) at Granville Smith Field on Friday.

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