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The Wildcats lost two out of three games at the District 10 tournament July 26-27, falling short of qualifying for the state tournament. They lost 10-0 to Eden Prairie, came back to beat Buffalo 13-10 and were knocked out of the tournament by Centennial 16-6.

Eden Prairie 10, CL 0

The Wildcats lost their opener 10-0 to Eden Prairie, one of the top three Legion teams in the state. The Wildcats appeared to take a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but a Wildcat runner was called out on appeal after an apparent sacrifice fly. Eden Prairie scored one run to take the lead in the third. They went on to score nine more runs, including a two-run homer in the fourth and a three-run homer in the sixth, to cruise to the victory.

Chisago Lakes 13, Buffalo 10

In a wild one, the Wildcats outlasted Buffalo 13-10 to keep alive their chances of advancing to the state tournament.

The Wildcats got on the board in the top of the first inning. Bob LeVasseur singled, Tommy Fitzer sacrificed him to second and, with two outs, Jeff Hollister drove in LeVasseur with a single to give the Wildcats the early lead.

Buffalo came right back with three runs in the bottom of the first. The Wildcats answered with four runs of their own in the top of the second. Eric Reed tripled to lead off the inning. Next batter Dan Kaiser drove in Reed with a single. David Willhite walked. With one out, Fitzer doubled down the left field line, scoring Kaiser and Willhite. Adam Gemuenden followed with another double to score Fitzer and put the Wildcats up 5-3.

Buffalo scored in the bottom of the inning to close to 5-4. In the top of the third, Mike Welle singled with one out and scored on Reed’s double. Buffalo scored two runs in the third and two in the fourth to take an 8-6 lead. In the top of the fifth, Reed doubled again and scored on Trevor Nowack’s single. Nowack advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on LeVasseur’s single to tie the game at 8-8.

The teams traded runs in the sixth and the eighth. Gemuenden led off the sixth with a triple and scored on Hollister’s sacrifice fly. Buffalo tied the game on a walk, a groundout and an error in the bottom of the sixth. In the eighth, Welle singled, moved to second on Reed’s walk and scored on Trevor Nowack’s single.

In the bottom of the eighth, a hit batter and a walk put runners on first and second with no outs. The next Buffalo batter, attempting a sacrifice bunt, popped the ball up in front of the plate. Catcher Reed dove, caught the ball, got up and fired to double the runner off second for a double play. The runner on first scored after an errant throw and a wild pitch, but Welle, now pitching, struck out the next batter to end the inning.

In the top of the ninth, LeVasseur walked, Fitzer reached on a bunt single and Gemuenden walked to load the bases. Hollister’s sacrifice fly scored LeVasseur with the go-ahead run. Ryan Rivard grounded to the pitcher. Fitzer was thrown out at home, but Rivard reached first safely. Welle then doubled Gemuenden and Rivard in to give the Wildcats a three run lead. Welle and the Wildcat defense set down Buffalo 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Wildcats the 13-10 win.

Centennial 16, Chisago Lakes 6

The Wildcat season ended with a 16-6 loss to Centennial. The Wildcats fell behind early and started to close the gap in the middle innings, but Centennial scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to put the game away.

Centennial burst out of the gate with five runs in the first inning. They led 10-0 before the Wildcats got on the board in the fifth inning.

The Wildcats scored four runs on six hits in the fifth, but a baserunning mistake prevented them from having an even bigger inning. The Wildcats added two more in the top of the sixth to close the gap to 10-6, but Centennial scored four in the bottom of the sixth to take a 14-6 lead. Centennial added two in the bottom of the eighth to make the final score Centennial 16, Chisago Lakes 6.

“Our team ended up having a good season,” said Wildcat head coach Pat Collins. “We were 3-9 at one point, but won a couple of league games late and then went 4-1 in the subdistrict tournament to advance to the district tournament. Our final record was 12-14. The kids did very well, considering we had all high school sophomores and juniors on our roster and most of the district tournament teams have high school seniors and college freshmen on theirs.

“I learned a lot about some of our players this summer and, since most or all of them are likely to play on our high school team next spring as juniors and seniors, that knowledge and the experience the players gained this summer should help us to have a good high school season,” Collins concluded.

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