The Minnetonka and Eden Prairie baseball teams both had some ups and downs last week.
Going into this week’s action, Minnetonka stood 2-3 overall and the EP Eagles had a 3-1 mark.
Last week began well for Minnetonka with an 8-2 victory over Chanhassen at Minnetonka’s Veterans Field, but then the Skippers lost back-to-back decisions to Waconia 4-3 and Moorhead 9-4.
Eden Prairie topped Hopkins 5-1 in a Lake Conference game before losing a 10-0 Saturday matinee to undefeated Wayzata.
Following are highlights of last week’s play.
Minnetonka
“Everything worked well in our win over Chanhassen,” Minnetonka head coach Paul Twenge said. “We had long innings on offense and short innings on defense with some big hits at the right times.”
Shortstop Will Koeppen and catcher Lincoln Heitkamp both went three-for-three to lead Minnetonka’s attack and third baseman Nate Wheeler went two-for-four.
“Those three have been our most consistent hitters,” Twenge noted. Koeppen was only missing a home run in his bid for the cycle against Chanhassen.
Pitcher Max Nelson went six innings for Tonka in the Chanhassen game, allowing only two hits before Koeppen relieved in the top of the seventh.
“Max did a nice job,” coach Twenge said.
Things didn’t go as well for the Skippers against Waconia and Moorhead. “In both games, we gave up runs with two outs,” Twenge lamented.
Next for Minnetonka is a Lake Conference home game against Buffalo at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 26.
Eden Prairie
Zach Peta’s second outing of the 2024 season produced a second straight complete game. Over the first five innings, he allowed only two hits and struck out five without allowing a run.
Dawson Miller hit a home run and went two-for-four to lead the Eagles. Nick Thompson also had a pair of hits. Wyatt Peterson, Noah Goldman, Lincoln Heath, Elijah Stewart and Ethan Sawatsky each had one hit for Hopkins.
Talking about Peta’s performance on the mound, Eden Prairie head coach Scott Hackett said, “Zach has a confident presence. He did a lot of work in the offseason and has taken the leading role on our pitching staff.”
Eden Prairie did not have a good day against Wayzata on Saturday. The game was close most of the way, so the 10-0 final score was somewhat deceiving.
“It didn’t feel like a 10-0 game,” Hackett said. “We gave up nine walks and hit three of their batters. And our hitters struck out 18 times. You can’t do either of those things and expect to win.”
The one good thing about that game was that Hackett had a chance to see most of Eden Prairie’s other pitchers in action. There were some good stretches. When Nick Macheledt returns to action after an injury, the staff could become stronger in a hurry.
The hitting highlight in the loss to Wayzata was a triple by shortstop Joe Goetze. Josh Kelly and Connor Meadows had the other Eagle hits.
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