Woodbury baseball: Royals losing streak hits eight games last week

The Woodbury baseball team’s losing streak hit eight games last week as it dropped Suburban East Conference games to East Ridge, Cretin-Derham Hall, Park, Mounds View and finished up a postponed non-conference game with Tartan on the losing end.

In a rivalry game with intra-district rival Park, on Wednesday, May 4, at Woodbury High School, Woodbury (3-10; 3-8 SEC) lost to the Wolfpack for the first time in four years.

Behind a solid start by pitcher Kyle Fritz and a four-run third inning, the Wolfpack topped Woodbury 5-4. Coincidentally, the last time Park beat Woodbury in baseball was 5-4 at Woodbury on Thursday, May 10, 2007. Woodbury beat Park 11-0 on April 13 of this year, 16-4 and 10-7 last season, 7-5 and 5-2 in 2009 and twice by a 7-4 score in 2008.

In the loss, Park (8-6; 5-6 SEC) took a 4-1 lead in the third inning, backed by a two-run home run by junior outfielder Spencer Diedrich. Then, after Woodbury tied the game 4-4 with runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, Park took back its lead, 5-4 in the top of the seventh inning and held on for the win.

Park senior pitcher Luke Wincentsen earned the save, striking out two Royals in the seventh inning to secure the win for the Wolfpack and Fritz, who threw six innings, allowing four hits while striking out four. Diedrich led the way for Park at the plate, going 2-for-2 with the homerun, a run scored and two RBI.

For Woodbury, senior Sean Scanlon was 1-for-1 with two walks, a homerun and three runs scored. Additionally, Ryan Fritze had an RBI double and Mike Policano, Ryan Scanlon and Jonny Castro each had singles. Castro and Austin Fleischhacker also each had one RBI.

Royals’ junior pitcher Steve Fingleton took the loss in the game, going 6.1 innings, allowing six hits and four earned runs, while striking out one.

Most recently, Woodbury fell 3-0 at Mounds View on Friday, May 6, and finalized a 14-11 loss to Tartan at Midway Stadium from a game that was suspended on April 21, due to a power outage. Before losing to Park, Woodbury fell 9-6 to Cretin-Derham Hall on Tuesday, May 3, in St. Paul.

In the loss to Mounds View, Woodbury was held to one hit — a single by Policano. Woodbury sophomore pitcher Brandon Mazur was tagged with the loss, despite a solid start. Mazur allowed just three hits and no earned runs while striking out five over six innings pitched against the Mustangs (6-5; 6-5 SEC).

In the loss to Cretin-Derham Hall, the Raiders put up four runs in the first inning and three runs in the second inning to go ahead 7-0 early and held on for the win.

Woodbury scored four runs in the third inning and two runs in the fourth inning, but it wasn’t enough to catch up to the Raiders (6-6; 6-6 SEC).

Fritze led the way for Woodbury at the plate going 3-for-4 with a double, a homerun and four RBI. Sean Scanlon and Austin Fleischhacker also hit homeruns for Woodbury in the loss and Ryan Scanlon was 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Woodbury took on Forest Lake (7-4; 7-4 SEC) in a double-header on Monday, May 9, after the Bulletin went to press. Next, the Royals play host to Stillwater (9-3; 8-3 SEC) on Wednesday, May 11.

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