East Ridge baseball: Raptors drop two straight, end regular season this week

East Ridge High School’s baseball team dropped two-straight before heading into this week’s final stretch of regular-season play.

The Raptors (7-10, 7-8 Suburban East Conference) defeated fellow Suburban East Conference team Stillwater, 6-5, on Monday, May 7, beating the Ponies by a run for the second time this season.

The Ponies led 5-4 after five innings before the Raptors scored a run a piece in the sixth and seventh innings – its seventh-inning, deciding run coming on a walk. Winning pitcher Drew Molin fanned four, allowing four earned runs and walking two. Freshman Carter Stoehr went 3-for-4 at bat with a double and RBI for the Raptors, while senior Aaron Rau was 2-for-3.

The Raptors went on to fall to Forest Lake, 6-4, last Wednesday. East Ridge was up 4-3 in the sixth inning, but Forest Lake rallied to claim the lead.

“We had the game where we wanted to and were winning, but couldn’t pull it out,” said East Ridge coach Brian Sprout. “It was a big loss for us on the week.”

The Raptors went on to fall to current SEC leader and state-ranked Cretin-Derham Hall 20-0 last Friday, giving up walks and hits that cost the team, Sprout said.

“We had pretty poor defense in the field,” he said. “They made it real tough on us right off the bat when they scored with their first four runners.”

East Ridge closes its regular season this week, playing at Park on Monday and at Roseville today. The Raptors will host Woodbury on Friday. In their previous outing, East Ridge defeated Park 3-2 and Roseville, 2-1 in 10 innings before falling to Woodbury, 2-1 in nine innings. Section play begins next week.

“We’re hoping to start the week fresh and to get things going so we’re going into the playoffs playing the best baseball possible as a team,” Sprout said. “Hopefully it is a good week for us. We’re looking forward to it and excited for the opportunity to put a few more wins on the board.”

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