Baseball: Cardinals look toward the playoffs after a CLC title

The Alexandria baseball team had already wrapped up a share of the Central Lakes Conference title heading into the regular-season finale on Thursday, but having Brainerd in town was a chance to end things on a high note.

This is not the typical Warriors team. The perennial power suffered a losing season for the first time in years this spring, but they beat Alexandria 10-9 on April 26. Thursday at Knute Nelson Ballpark, the Cardinals (12-6, 9-4 CLC) returned the favor in a 6-3 win over the Warriors (9-11, 6-8 CLC).

“It’s huge,” Alexandria sophomore Blake Hoelscher said. “It’s the first time in six years we’ve been able to beat them. Now, I think we locked up number one for the seeds, so home field advantage is going to be awesome here (in the playoffs).”

Hoelscher had a solo home run in the third inning that made it a 4-1 Alexandria lead after the Cardinals had put up three in the first. Hoelscher and Matthew Carlsen each had two of their team’s six hits.

Carlsen started on the mound and went five solid innings. He scattered eight hits but limited the damage done to just two runs. Luke Levasseur closed things out by allowing just one unearned run over the final two frames.

Alexandria played relatively clean defense behind them, committing just two errors. That’s the kind of formula they need starting next week once the postseason begins.

“It’s going to be pitching, keep the walks down and get the bat on the ball,” Hoelscher said. “We’ve been doing that lately, not giving free bases and putting the ball in play. Not making errors too will be huge.”

Winning a CLC title was this team’s first goal, and the Cardinals accomplished that for the first time since 2014. They shared the championship with St. Cloud Tech this year. Due to the late start to the season and not knowing how many games would get in, the CLC teams decided to only count the first games against league opponents toward the conference standings.

That meant that tonight’s result with the Warriors did not matter in the CLC, but it could have held meaning when it comes to Section 8AAA seeding. Alexandria had already positioned itself as the likely top seed through the QRF on Minnesota-scores.net. The win over Brainerd likely secures it.

“We got a bunch of confidence going into the playoffs,” Hoelscher said. “We’re looking good, playing great baseball right now. We could maybe hit the ball a little bit more. We got outhit tonight, but we’re pumped for playoffs.”

Confident but not cocky. Hoelscher said they view this five-team section as an open field and don’t necessarily feel like a favorite.

“We’ve seen this year that anyone can beat us,” he said. “We know we have to play our best no matter what. We haven’t seen Little Falls, so we don’t know what they’re up to. It’s going to be interesting to see. It’s going to be fun.”

The Flyers were 12-7 heading into a game against Moorhead on Thursday night. Little Falls is allowing just 2.7 runs per game and is looking like the potential second seed. Bemidji (13-7) is right there too, while Fergus Falls (6-10) and Detroit Lakes (6-13) round out the field.

“What we have to remember is how we felt last year going up and facing Bemidji as the number two seed,” Munsch said. “Everyone is hungry to play you (as the one seed). The truth is, including ourselves, I don’t think there is any team in the section who can make mistakes and win it. It’s going to come down to who pitches and gets key hits.”

If Alexandria does wrap up the top seed, it will face the winner of the fourth and fifth-seeded game on May 30 at a time that was still to be decided. Munsch likes that the Cardinals will play a couple of games at home to start the tournament, with a bit of a caveat.  

“It’s always great to play at home in the playoffs except that it’s only 345 feet in center field,” Munsch said with a smile. “It’s great playing here, but you always have in the back of your mind that a fly ball can ruin it for you.”

The Cardinals are the defending section champions. This is a different season and a different group of players, but they’re eager to see if they can repeat and get back to the state tournament.

“Last year, we were hungry and we played really well going into playoffs,” Munsch said. “I feel like the guys have established a will to want to get back down there, but we understand that if we don’t do things right, we won’t be there.”

BRAINERD           001 011 0 - 3 10 1

ALEXANDRIA     301 101 X - 6 6 2

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING - Matthew Carlsen - W, 5IP, 8H, 2R, 2ER, 2BB, 2SO; Luke Levasseur - 2IP, 2H, 1R, 0ER, 0BB, 0SO

ALEXANDRIA OFFENSE - Braden Reisdorf - 0-3, BB, 1 run; Carlsen - 2-3, BB; Thomas Anderson - 1-3, 2 runs; Brock Anderson - 3 BB, 1 RBI; Levasseur - 0-3, BB; Isaac Peterson - 1-2, BB, RBI; Blake Hoelscher - 2-4, 1 run, RBI; Josh Wegner - 0-1; Michael Kuhn - 0-2; Aiden Buttweiler - 2 runs