St. Michael Saints fall to Champlin Park, shutout Hamel

The St. Michael Saints townball team of the Metro Minny Class B Amateur Baseball League was a part of two shutouts over their last two games. They fell 7-0 to the league-leading Champlin Park LoGators on June 25 before taking down the Hamel Hawks 6-0 on June 27.

It was the end of a three-game road stretch for the Saints as they fell another game behind Champlin Park in the Metro Minny standings. The LoGators took a 2-0 lead after one inning and didn’t look back.

St. Michael went a combined 7-for-33 at the plate. Hayden Frank led the team with two hits. Marcus Krupke, Trey Sybrant, Matthew Maulik and Jonathan Pribula all hit singles. Ben Boebel had the team’s only extra-base hit, a double.

Kaleb Klinkhammer started the game on the mound for St. Michael. Klinkhammer allowed five runs in five innings with five strikeouts. Boebel pitched the final three innings in relief.

It was a tough loss for St. Michael, who are now two and a half games back of Champlin Park (11-8, 5-0 Metro Minny) in the standings. The Saints (5-3, 3-3 Metro Minny) are a game and a half back of Andover (10-7, 3-1).

They reversed their fortunes during a non-league matchup against Hamel. Frank started the game on the mound and struck out two in four shutout innings. Ethan Knutson struck out one batter in four relief innings and Dylan Byer struck out one in one inning.

The Saints led 1-0 through eight innings before they plated five in the top of the ninth. Sybrant, Byer, Pribula and Matthew Mortensen each drove in a run. Frank had a team-high three hits and scored twice. Pribula went 2-for-5 with two doubles. Blake Schirmers had a sacrifice bunt.

St. Michael doesn’t play again until they host Forest Lake on Sunday, July 7. On Tuesday, July 9 they have a road game against Anoka before coming back home for a matchup against Andover.

It’s an important stretch for St. Michael if they want to begin clawing their way back for a top-two seed for the league playoffs. Six of their final eight regular season games are against league opponents, four of those at home.