Railcats come up short with a pair of two-run losses

St. Louis Park Legion baseball marked the final week of the regular season with tough losses to Excelsior Post 259 Senior 1 8-6 on July 17 before losing a slugfest 15-13 against Wayzata Post 118 on July 18.

The Railcats were 7-11 heading into Friday’s regular-season finale against Hopkins Post 320 Flyers.

Against Excelsior, Park built a 6-1 lead, scoring twice in the second inning and adding four more runs in the third.

Cole Dunham opened the second inning with a line drive single to center field before scoring on Sivanich’s Fielder’s Choice. Charlie Oden’s fly to left field fell safely in to bring in Goodman to take a 2-1 lead.

Park turned a double play to get out of the bottom of the second inning with a 2-1 lead.

Railcats Graham Sullivan began the third inning with a double to center before scoring on Danny Montanez’s bases-loaded walk for the RBI to make it 3-1. Mobley’s single comebacker to the pitcher allowed Alex Hokenson to score.

Denham and Montanez scored after Oden’s ground ball to second base was bobbled to take a 6-1 lead with two outs.

Excelsior tied the game then took an 8-6 lead with back-to-back doubles with one out in the sixth inning.

Odens, Mobley and Denham each had two hits.

Martenson took on the loss on the mound with 5 1/3 innings of work. He scattered eighth runs with nine hits and three walks. He struck one batter out. Iverson had one strikeout, retiring two final batters.

The next night, it looked like the Fourth of July as Wayzata and Park combined to score 28 runs on 30 hits. The Wayzata Wizards won 15-13, and the two teams combined not to score a run in five half-innings.

Wayzata took a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Park came back with four runs in the top of the second inning, and the two teams traded three points each in the third inning, with Wayzata taking an 8-7 lead into the fourth inning.

Wayzata broke the game open with a seven-run fifth inning, sending 13 batters to the plate to take a 15-8 lead.

Park rallied for five runs in its last half-inning. Montanez led off the seventh inning with a single to right field. Two walks were followed by an Isaac Schuman double to bring in Montanez and Mobley to make it a 15-10 game. Sullivan’s fly to left brought in Goodman and Schulman, who scored on a fielding error with Hokenson’s grounder to shortstop.