Card baseball: Alexandria sweeps series with St. Cloud Tech

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The Alexandria baseball team overcame a power outage and a 30-minute delay at Joe Faber Field on Monday night to earn sweep in the season series of St. Cloud Tech with a 5-2 win.

The Cardinals never trailed on the night as they took a 2-0 lead in the first and never looked back. Ben Allen reached on an error in the inning and came around to score on a Pat Leary double. Grant Becker pinch ran for Leary and scored on a wild pitch.

Alexandria added two more to that lead in the top of the fifth. This time it was Jordan Domine who provided the big hit with a two-out double that scored Aaron Billberg and Allen to make it 4-0.

Senior starter Logan Serum took that run support and ran with it on the mound. He coasted through five innings before running into a little trouble in the sixth. The Tigers got to him for two runs before Nick Knoblach relieved Serum with the bases loaded and two outs. The hard-throwing right-hander struck out the first batter he faced on three fastballs to end the threat.

The Cardinals rallied with a scoring threat of their own in the top of the seventh. Allen and Leary reached on singles before the power went out and delayed the game for 30 minutes. AJ Anderson came up when the game finally resumed and hit a sharp groundball that scored Becker for his team’s fifth run of the game.

Knoblach finished things off with a clean bottom of the seventh. He blew through the first three batters he faced to pick up the save and help Alexandria move to 2-2 on the young season.

The Cardinals want pitching and defense to be the staples of this team this season. They had committed a total of eight errors in the last two games but cleaned that up nicely against the Tigers.

“Defense was much sharper tonight as we played error-free baseball with some great infield defense up the middle by Allen and Billberg,” head coach Russ Hinrichs said. “The Cards also saw maybe the play of the year as Erich Murphy made a diving, base-handed catch in foul territory on a bunt attempt by a Tiger batter. Pat Leary did a great job behind the plate in his varsity debut, doing a great job of calling the game and at a crucial time early in the game, throwing out a Tiger base stealer.”

Alexandria will try to build on the win in a double-header at Bemidji tonight, Friday. The Cardinals and Lumberjacks last met in the Section 8AAA title game last season.

GAME SUMMARY

ALEXANDRIA 200 020 1 – 5 9 0

ST. CLOUD TECH 000 002 0 – 2 6 1

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING – Serum – W, 5 2/3IP, 6H, 2R, 2ER, 5SO; Knoblach – S, 1 1/3IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB

ALEXANDRIA HITS – Allen – 2; Leary – 2; Domine – 2; Anderson – 1; Knoblach – 1; Billberg – 1

Tags: alexandria sports, sports, cardinals, baseball