Richfield Reds reach Karnas Klassic final

Richfield Legion honors vets before dispatching Holy Angels on Friday 10-3

It was only fitting that the Richfield Reds played for the title at its own Karnas Klassic title on Sunday afternoon.

Post 435 baseball team opened the tournament with a pair of wins over Holy Angels 10-3 on Friday and Patriots Post 594 7-4 on Saturday.

The third consecutive win for the Reds (8-3-1) was followed by a 2-2 draw against Fridley Gold (Totino-Grace) to wrap up pool play.

The two teams met again on Sunday afternoon in the championship game with Fridley pulling out a 6-1 win.

Before the opening game on Friday, a brief ceremony to honor veterans and the military took place on the infield, the day after Independence Day.

Wearing their special military-green jersey with a patriotic Richfield script, Richfield took care of crosstown rival Holy Angels 10-3 to average a 4-3 loss in the season opener.

Friday’s win featured pitcher Drew Lankey striking out 10 Stars batters across six innings for the win. He allowed two runs on four hits.

Lankey retired the Stars in order to start the game with a ground out, fly out and strike out.

The Reds didn’t waste time generating offense.

Cason Carter drew a lead-off walk and Matthew Popp followed with a successful bunt, allowing Carter to score.

Jayden Anderson kept the parade going with an RBI double to right field, bringing in Miles Patt who reached on a five-pitch walk. Oliver Kelash’s ground out to the right side of the infield allowed Patt to score from third base to push the score to 3-0.

Cole Nutting earned a trip to first base after being hit by a pitch with two outs before Aidan Forpahl ended the rally with a strikeout.

The Reds scored in five of six innings with Carter and Popp each scoring three times. Wolke had two hits and Carter drew three of Richfield’s nine walks. The Reds were aggressive on the basepaths piling up eight stolen bases.

Ian Stang worked the seventh inning, allowing one run on two hits, two walks and two strikeouts.

Popp drove in Carter with a one-out double to center field to take a 4-0 lead in the second inning as Patt and Anderson were hit by pitches on the ensuing two pitches.

Forpahl led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single to right field before coming around to score on Patt’s line-drive single to left field to take a 7-2 lead.

Next time Forpahl came to the plate he brought in Wolke with a sac fly to right field to make it 10-2.

Saturday began with another strong performance for the hosts in a 7-4 win over Post 594 Patriots (Eagan). The Reds pitchers combined for 11 strikeouts with Kelash fanning six batters over four innings to record the win. Stand was next with three strikeouts over 2 1/3 innings of relief before Carter earned a two-out save. He needed 11 pitches to strike out two of the third batters he faced to end the game.

Carter continued to roam centerfield and bat in the leadoff spot in the order. He went 2-for-3 with a triple, walk and two RBIs. Wolke went 2-for-2 scoring once as six different base runners accounted for the Reds’ runs.

With Richfield clinging to a 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Reds tacked on three more runs. Stang started the inning with a line drive to left field before Popp brought in Ian Ekholm who was courtesy running for Stang.

Patt and Forpahl drew walks with two outs before each scored on passed balls to take a 7-3 lead.

Richfield ended Saturday with a 2-2 tie against Fridley Gold, thanks to Popp’s successful steal of home with two outs and Wolke at the plate. Anderson drew a two-out walk to put runners on the corners to set up the double steal for the Reds which allowed Popp to make the successful break for home.

Popp reached second base on a one-out double to center field.

Popp and Forpahl each had two hits to lead the Reds as the team drew six walks. Popp also collected three stolen bases.

The same two teams returned to the baseball field at Richfield High School to decide the Karnas Klassic champion on Sunday afternoon.

Fridley jumped out to a 5-0 lead through three innings as Richfield was limited to one run on six hits with four of the hits coming from Carter and Anderson.

Carter led off the fifth inning with a triple before scoring on Popp ground ball to right field to break up the shutout bid.

Anderson took the loss on the mound allowing five runs on four hits over three innings. He struck out three batters before Wolke and Carter worked the final three innings in relief.

Another hit-by-pitch for Nutting gave the Reds a baserunner to start the sixth inning before Carter’s hard-hit single to left field gave the home team two runners on with two outs. Popp ended the rally with a pop-out to the pitcher to get Fridley out of the threatening jam.

The Reds have a busy stretch of games with three games this week and four more next week before heading into Sub-State action.

Holy Angels

Holy Angels went 1-2 at the Karnas Klassic with a 13-2 win over Patriots on Saturday morning sandwiched between a pair of losses.

The win featured two hits by Oskar Eilefson, Evan Johnson and Henry Sharp. Sharp and Eli Swan each had a double as the Stars recorded 10 walks, three from Dresden Hortsch. Five base runners accounted for the runs with Swan, Sharp, Brenden Swartout and Anders Kuykendall each scoring twice. Horsch scored three times.

Johnson was efficient on the mound needing 81 pitches to get through six innings. He allowed two unearned runs on five hits and two walks. He struck out four batters.

Holy Angels had five hits but couldn’t scrape out a run in a 9-0 loss.

Swartout worked five shutout innings of relief, allowing two hits and one walk while striking out two batters.

Finn Sheeley went 1-for-2 in the leadoff spot for the Stars before Hortsch picked up a hit in his only plate appearance for Sheeley who started at third base.

Kuykendall and Swartout each had a pinch hit.