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Totino-Grace 15, North Branch 14

North Branch has been involved in its fair share of shootouts this year, but none as wild as their 15-14 loss to conference rival Totino-Grace last week.

The Vikings struck early against Totino, piling up six runs in the top half of the first inning. They batted through the order and each guy was putting the barrell of the bat on the ball.

If they weren't scalding the ball, the Totino-Grace starter was dotting his pitches everywhere except the strike zone, as they Vikes drew eight walks in the game, plus one hit by pitch.

The highlight of the first inning barrage was a bases loaded double by Travis Anderson that cleared the bags of Vikings.

Despite the strong offensive showing, it wasn't enough to hold off Totino for long. In fact, by the third inning, the Eagles had actually taken the lead. They scored on in the bottom of the first, chopped the lead to three in the bottom of the second and took a 7-6 lead after the third inning.

The Eagles were flying, as they added another run in the bottom of the fourth, and North Branch looked like they were slowly letting the game slip away after their gigantic first inning.

But, the potent red-and-white offense didn't cap their run total at six. That first inning ended up not even being their highest scoring frame of the game, as they chalked up seven runs in the top of the fifth inning.

As a part of the offensive outburst, third baseman Kerry Konrad and catcher Andy Freel hit back-to-back homeruns. Konrad's four-bagger was a two-run shot and Freel's was a solo job. "You don't see back-to-back homers too often," Head Coach Steve Christensen said. "Both even went out at the same spot of left-center field."

The first round trippers of the year for North Branch really put an exclamation point on the inning. "Our offense ran on all cylinders today, especially in the big innings," Christensen said.

The explosive inning gave North Branch a 13-8 lead, but Totino began chipping away just as soon as the bottom half of the inning started. They added two runs in the bottom of the fifth to trim the lead to 13-10. In the bottom of the sixth, they added two more big runs to make it 13-12.

However, North Branch added an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning to go up 14-12, and they were three outs away from winning the contest over the hated Eagles.

Dylan Kraemer was going on his third inning of relief going into the bottom of the seventh and was starting to lose the strike zone a bit.

Christensen called on Tyler Knobbe to get the last two outs of the game with runners on. After allowing two hits and Totino to knot the score, Knobbe coaxed a fly ball, but it was deep enough to bring in the runner from third on a tag up as Totino walked off with the come-from-behind victory. "We had them," Christensen said after the heartbreaker. "Our defense came up short today. In the end, though, it was Totino's bats that did us in."

Despite the cold and occasional snow flakes in the air, starting pitcher Thomas Kinsella gutted through four innings, giving up 10 runs, only four of which were earned as the defense behind him committed seven errors on the day.

Brett Klun was three-for-five at the plate with two runs and an RBI, Anderson was one-for-four with a bases clearing double in the first inning Kinsella also knocked in two runs on a double in the seven run fifth inning.

Tyler Zondlo, Freel, Tanner Danks and Konrad each finished with one hit a piece, but Freel had two RBIs and Konrad had three.

Irondale 8, North Branch 5

Although this game started out hot and looked like it might be a repeat of the barn burner between NB and Totino earlier in the season, an early scoring run subsided after two innings.

After Irondale opened the game with two runs off of North Branch starter Kevin Johnson, the Vikes struck back to tie the game in the bottom half of the inning. Anderson lead the inning off with a single, and Klun drew a walk behind him. Christian Ehrnriter laid down a pretty bunt from the three hole, trying to move the runners up. When the Knight defense threw the ball away, it allowed Anderson to come all the way around and score from second base. Klun moved up to third on the error and was plated when Danks hit into a fielders choice to the shortstop.

Irondale quickly added three more runs off of Johnson, who was struggling at the time. Down again, the Viking offense, like it has all season, went to work to put runs up on the board any way possible. Zondlo and Freel opened the inning with back-to-back singles and Johnson helped his cause by sacrificing the runners over. After a Cole Mattson flyout, Anderson came through at the top of the order with a single that scored Zondlo and Knobbe -- who had been the courtesy runner for Freel, the Vikings' catcher.

Johnson settled down a bit in the third and fourth inning, and retired the batters in order, but he ran into trouble again in the fifth inning. With his team still trailing 5-4, Anderson gave up two singles and a walk, loading the bases with zero outs.

Christensen summoned Ehrnriter from his bullpen, and the senior came through in a big way. He struck out the first two batters he faced, which happened to be Irondale's fourth and fifth hitters, and coerced a pop out from the six hitter to work his way out of the jam and keep the game close.

Although he got close to working out of another ugly situation, the large amount of baserunners eventually caught up to Ehrnriter. After a walk, an error and a sacrifice bunt, Irondale's leadoff hitter grounded a ball to Kinsella at shortstop. With the Vikes needing to keep the game close, Kinsella rifled the ball home and Freel swiped a perfect tag on the runner to cut him down and keep the lead at one.

But, two runners were on still with two outs, and the Knight up to bat hit a soft single to load the bases for the three hole hitter Joe Norton. Norton ripped a double to right center that cleared the bases and stretched the Knight lead to 8-4.

Although North Branch tacked on one more run in the bottom of the seventh on a Danks' RBI, they couldn't string together enough baserunners to pose a serious threat at Irondale.

"We kept fighting, but it doesn't feel good to lose a game you were so close to winning," Christensen said.

Both Danks and Anderson were two-for-four with two RBIs. Klun didn't record an official at-bat, but he drew four walks on the game and scored two runs. Freel, Zondlo and Anderson scored the other runs.

Robbinsdale Cooper 12, North Branch 2

On a cloudy and cool day at Cooper High School, the Vikings baseball team was truly outmatched for the first time this year.

The Hawks, who are the defending North Suburban Conference champions and unbeaten on the year so far, scored at least two runs in all five innings in a game that was shortened due to the 10 run mercy rule.

Knobbe started on the mound and made it through only three innings before Kraemer finished off the last two.

On offense, North Branch was only able to pick up two hits off of Cooper's Griffen Smith. "The hard-throwing right hand pitcher had some good velocity and mixed it up with a change-up and slurve that kept us off balance," Christensen said. Smith struck out nine of the 15 Viking batters he retired.

The Vikes did get two runs in unconventional ways. Anderson reached on a walk in the third, advanced to second on a single by Klun and scored on a throwing error by Cooper's shortstop.

The second run came in when Kinsella drew a walk, moved to second on a muffed pick off attempt and moved to third on a sacrifice hit by Konrad. Kinsella finally scored when Smith committed a balk, moving all baserunners up a bag.

"Our defense played okay and our pitchers struggled to throw some strikes," Christensen noted. "But Cooper hit the ball and pitched very well. Give them credit."

North Branch is currently 3-4, and has three games this next week. They played Monday at home against St. Louis Park and Wednesday at St. Francis. They travel to Columbia Heights tonight, May 5 at 4:30.

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