Sports Notebook for May 11

• Brady Hanson

Brady Hanson and his East Ridge boys golf teammates placed sixth in a Suburban East Conference matchup on Monday. Bulletin Photo by Patrick Johnson.

Talk about it

The Woodbury Warriors 35-and-over baseball team had its successful run temporarily derailed by rainouts, while several local high school golf teams dodged the raindrops to get their greens in over the past week.

Warriors rained out in weekend’s games

The Woodbury 35-and-over baseball team remained a perfect 3-0 on the season as the Warriors regularly scheduled games against Burnsville and Miesville, slated to be played on May 7 and 8, respectively, were both called on account of weather.

The Friday, May 7 contest was the second Warriors home game of the season to be rained out, with Woodbury yet to host a game this season.

Next up, the Warriors are scheduled to travel to play Burnsville at Alimagnet Park on Friday, May 14, with a trip to play Mill City Blue at the North East Athletic Field in Minneapolis the next day.

Woodbury takes on one of its longest-standing rivals in a home-and-home series on May 16 and 22 with the first matchup taking place at Big Willow in Minnetonka followed by a “home” game at Tartan High School in Oakdale.

The Warriors have non-league wins over the St. Paul Senators (8-3), Rosetown Rockets (21-1) and Minnetonka Lakers (14-4) to their credit this season so far.

ERHS netters drop a pair

The youthful East Ridge boys tennis team is learning how tough the Suburban East Conference can be.

The Raptors (6-5, 2-6 SEC) dropped their third-straight conference match, 5-2, to Forest Lake — and defending Class 2A state singles champion Dusty Boyer, who is ranked No. 1 this season — on Wednesday, May 5, after falling by the same score, 5-2, to SEC foe Cretin-Derham Hall on Tuesday, May 4.

Against Forest Lake (9-4, 5-2 SEC), East Ridge was swept at singles, but earned two doubles wins. The Raptors’ No. 1 duo of Robbie MacNamara and Wilmar Tropezado won 6-1, 6-4 and the No. 3 doubles team of Joaquin Valdes and Warren Tropezado won 7-6, 4-6, 10-8.

Against Cretin-Derham Hall (4-9, 4-3 SEC), MacNamara and Tropezado again earned a win at first singles, 6-4, 6-2 and eighth-graders Greg Sharrow and Branden Hickey paired up to win 6-3, 6-2 at second doubles.

East Ridge hosted a non-conference match against St. Paul Highland Park on Monday, May 10, after the Bulletin went to print, before returning to SEC play against Mounds View on Tuesday, May 11, at East Ridge High School.

Raptors girls golfers back in action

In its first Suburban East Conference match since April 26, the East Ridge girls golf team finished in fifth place in the 10-team conference tournament with a 397 total score on Monday, May 10 at Stillwater Country Club.

East Ridge sophomore Celina Spencer shot a team-best 97 to lead the way, followed by matching 98s from sophomore Ashley Lehner and eighth-grader Molly Richardson, while eighth-grader Andriel Aiuma’s 104 rounded out the Raptors’ top four.

At the start of the week, the East Ridge girls golf team took a brief respite from conference play to compete in the Forest Hills Invitational and the St. Peter Invitational at Shoreland Country Club.

To start the week, East Ridge finished 13th in the 17-team Forest Hills Invitational on Monday, May 3, in Forest Lake, shooting a 436 as a team. Forest Lake won the event with a 361.

Defending Class 3A state champion Betsy Kelly earned medalist honors with a 2-over-par 75.

For East Ridge, Lehner carded the Raptors’ top score with a 106, followed by Spencer (107) and Mi-Eh Han (111), while Molly Richardson (112) rounded out the team’s top four.

On Tuesday, May 4, East Ridge finished in fourth place in St. Peter out of seven teams. For the Raptors, Richardson finished in fifth place overall individually with an 88 18-hole score to pace East Ridge.

In addition to Richardson, Evenson and Lehner each shot 100 and Ellie Eckman had a 101 to round out the team’s top four.

Raptors competes in two SEC matches

The East Ridge boys golf team competed in a pair of Suburban East Conference meets – on Monday, May 10 at the White Bear Yacht Club and on Tuesday, May 4, at Prestwick.

Most recently, East Ridge finished in sixth place with a 330 at the White Bear Yacht Club.

For the Raptors, junior Luke Schrader led the way with a team-best 81, followed closely by freshman Brady Hanson, who carded an 82, while East Ridge freshman Logan Delaney and sophomore Jake Winbush rounded out the team’s top four with scores of 83 and 84, respectively.

Last Tuesday, at Prestwick, East Ridge finished in eighth place, this time with a 329 score.

Schrader led the way once more with a 79, followed by an 80 by junior Spencer Patterson, an 83 by Delaney and an 86 by Winbush.

Royals fourth, fifth in Suburban East golf matches

The Woodbury girls and boys golf teams placed fourth and fifth, respectively, in their Suburban East Conference competitions on Monday, May 10.

The Royals girls carded a team score of 376 at the Stillwater Country Club while the WHS boys logged a 326 at the White Bear Yacht Club.

The Woodbury girls are ranked eighth in the latest state poll.

MCAA split keeps New Life above .500

By splitting its pair of contests in Minnesota Christian Athletic Association play last week, the New Life Academy baseball team remained above the .500 mark in both overall and conference standings heading into a contest at MCAA foe Southwest Christian on Thursday, May 13.

The Eagles defeated Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity, 12-11, on Tuesday, May 4, then fell 8-3 at Meadow Creek Christian two days later to bring their record to 7-6 overall and 4-3 in the league.

New Life’s Eric Jacobs led the way at the plate in his team’s win over the Bulldogs at the Bielenberg Sports Center, going 4-for-5 with two runs scored, while Kory Kiekhofer scored three runs as pitcher Nick Brezniak recorded the victory off the mound for the hosts.

Against Meadow Creek, however, New Life fell behind 6-0 after three innings and trailed 8-0 before recording three tallies over the final two frames with pitcher John Horner taking the loss on the hill.

There are two games remaining on the Eagles regular-season calendar, with New Life traveling to Maplewood to face Liberty Classical Academy on Monday, May 17 after taking on Southwest in the lone game the club is slated to play this week.

Tags: daily updates, sports notebook, sports, royals, raptors, prep