Park Post 282 baseball follows up tourney title with more tourney games at Bird Island, in between showers
Two weeks into the Legion baseball season, the St. Louis Park Railcats are 5-3 after splitting a pair of games on Sunday to wrap up the BOLD Mudhen 22nd annual invite.
The Railcats opened the day with a 9-1 win over Luverne before losing a lead late in a 6-5 loss to West St. Paul Challenger.
Isaac Shulman doubled to right field, bringing in Josh Middleton, who got on base after getting hit by a pitch. Alex Hokenson followed with a single before Middleton and Hokenson rounded the bases after an errant pickoff attempt to take a 3-0 lead.
Danny Montanez was at the plate for the sequence before roping a double to left field.
Montanez earned the win on the mound for Park, going five strong innings, scattering just two hits without allowing a run or walk. He struck out four batters.
Schulman and Hokenson each had two hits in the six-inning game.
West St. Paul scored twice in the first inning and added three more runs in the fifth to build a 5-1 lead through 5 1/2 innings.
Park rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, starting with a leadoff walk to Hokenson before Montanez grounded out, and Cole Denham also picked up a walk.
Four singles, including three with two outs, aided the rally with RBI singles from Jacob Martenson, Sivanich and Middleton to take a 5-5 ball game into the seventh inning.
After Challenger made the most on a one-out single to scratch out a run to take a 6-5 lead, Park came to the plate looking for the walk-off win.
Schluman and Denham walked before the rare game-ending 5-1-2-1 double play. Six different Park batters recorded a hit, and two walks each from Hokenson and Denham gave the Railcats a chance to pull out the win.
Middleton and Martenson combined to strike out seven batters across six innings.
Park opened the season with a 6-1 loss at Prior Lake on June 11 before rattling off four consecutive wins, three of which were by one run.
One week before facing West St. Paul at Bird Island, the two ballclubs squared off in the Challenger Classic championship game at St. Thomas Academy.
Hokenson propelled the Railcats to a 4-3 win with a grand slam in the top of the sixth inning.
Wes Margraff earned the win, going 5 2/3 innings. He allowed three runs on six hits. He walked six and struck out three batters in the day’s third game on June 16.
The tourney title is the third for Park Post 282 since 2019.
The Railcats opened with a 2-1 win over Eagan on Saturday before handing Eastview a 9-5 defeat to begin June 16. The day continued with a 4-3 victory over Inver Grove Heights Post 24 to set up the final.
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