Follow-up against Thorp postponed

The weather having chosen to briefly coop erate, the Oriole boys varsity have played two games recently, one against Regis that ended 18 – 0, the other against Stratford ending 14 – 3 in the Tiger’s favor. An away game against Thorp that was set to follow on Friday, was postponed after water fell from the sky.

With a stop and go reality so far, the week’s play gives the Orioles varsity baseball team a 1 – 3 record for the season thus far.

Starting out with Regis it was all but done in the first inning, Regis scoring 11 runs to zero for Stanley-Boyd, then following this up with one in the second and three each in the third and fourth, as Stanley-Boyd made four hits but was unable to translate these into points on the board.

Beginning in the top of the first against Re – gis, Logan Burzynski hit a single on a fly ball to Regis center fielder Alex Leis. From there Burzynski went on to steal second, while the call of three strikes left Stanley out in the cold for the first round.

Switching to the field, Stanley-Boyd saw Re –

gis score its first run and load the bases follow –

ing a pop fly by Zander Rockow to Oriole cen – ter fielder Burzynski. From there, the Orioles scored and out before Regis scored some more runs, with the first inning coming to an end with an out by Stanley-Boyd on the base paths.

Shifting to the top of the second, Tyler Reynolds took a strike out, followed by Alex Mahr singling on a ground ball to the Regis shortstop. Unable to keep the momentum going the Orioles took three strikes before being able to score, then shifting over to the field. The Orioles third out with the catch of a fly ball by shortstop Hayden Gustafson, bringing things to a close for the second. With little changing in the third and fourth innings, the game against Regis closed out after the top of the fifth, the score 18 – 0 in Regis’ favor.

Following up Monday’s game against Regis, the Oriole baseball varsity faced ou with Strat ford at home Thursday, game play starting at 5 p.m. The night started out in Stanley Boyd’s fa- vor, the first three runs in the bottom of the sec – ond inning. But despite seven first pitch strikes by Brett Kroeplin and four first pitch strikes by JJ Heller, the Tigers came to score 14 points by the end of the night, the Orioles unable to turn things around. Coach Ryan Sturm put things into perspective somewhat after the game.

“Regis and Stratford are both ranked teams and will no doubt compete for state titles this year,” he said, then shifting to what needed to happen moving forward. “Little mistakes against good teams will get us beat. Our pitchers need to get ahead of hitters and change speeds better against good hitting teams. Also, we need to make the plays in the field to help out our pitchers.” At the same time, it would be nice to have a decent practice ground.

“While we have played four games, the cold, wet weather and our field conditions have not allowed us to practice on our field yet this year,” Sturm said. “It is hard to have realistic game scenarios when we have to practice on the football turf.” Coach Sturm also said that it was important for the team to throw first pitch strikes and get ahead of hitters. In the meantime, the camaraderie was good.

“Our team is working really hard and doing a great job with energy and their attitudes. There is great team camaraderie this year,” Sturm said.

The Orioles are scheduled to play Osseo- Fairchild tonight Thursday at Osseo-Fairchild. Game play starts at 5 p.m.