Eric Morken
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Eric Morken is the sports and outdoor editor at the Echo Press and Osakis Review newspapers in Douglas County, MN. Follow him on Twitter at echo_sports.
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The Alexandria tennis team evened its record at 10-10 on the season on Thursday night as the Cardinals swept St. Cloud Apollo in Central Lakes Conference play. Alexandria dominated the match, never losing more than four games at any spot as the Cardinals swept all seven in straight sets. JJ Foster, Derek Berning, Matt Vogel and AJ Bollman won in the first through fourth singles spots, respectively.
The Alexandria boys golf team won another Central Lakes Conference meet on Thursday as the Cardinals went to the Pebble Lake Golf Club and shot a 305. Head coach Brady Swedberg said it was not their best round, but it was good enough to get the job done as Brainerd fell three strokes short at 308. Sartell was close behind in third at 312. The Cardinals are comfortably in front of the CLC standings with 39 points to Brainerd's 32.5 after five of six meets have been played. Sophomore Noah Boraas continues his standout season as he shot a 73 to finish in second place.
The Alexandria adapted bowling team will be well represented at the state tournament on Friday. Before they left, the athletes got a big send-off from their classmates. The Cardinals have 22 bowlers who qualified for the state tournament at the Brunswick Zone in Brooklyn Park tomorrow.
One just has to look at the athletes named Prairie Conference MVPs to realize how things went for Osakis at the conference meet on Wednesday at St. John’s. Seniors Gage Larson and Jacob Jones of the Silverstreaks shared that honor on the boys side, while Osakis senior Kayla Sorenson was named the girls’ MVP with Abigail Ecker of Long Prairie-Grey Eagle. It made for another big day for these teams as the boys won with 174.5 points. Royalton was a distant second at 134, while the Osakis girls dominated with 238 points to LPGE’s 93 in second place.
BASEBALL Alexandria @ Fergus Falls, 5 p.m. B-E @ Hancock, 5 p.m. Osakis @ WHN, 5 p.m. Parkers Prairie vs. Browerville, 4:30 p.m. Ashby @ Ortonville, 5 p.m. Minnewaska @ Sauk Centre, 3:30 p.m. BOYS GOLF Osakis @ Howard Lake-W-W, 1 p.m.
The Alexandria girls golf team traveled to Brainerd on Wednesday to play in The Classic at Madden's among a 15-team field. The Cardinals came away with a first-place finish as they shot a 362, just edging Minnewaska at 365. Brainerd and Bemidji each shot 380 to round out the top four. "Team and individual scores were a little higher, as the golf course played very tough," Alexandria head coach Tim Zupfer said. "We were fortunate to avoid the rain until the last couple of holes."
The West Central Area boys golf team saved its best round of the season for the Quad County Conference meet as the Knights finished fourth with a 352. West Central Area started its season by posting a score of 414. The Knights have dwindled that all the way down into the 350s in the last three meets.
The Lakes Area Snowmen are ready to kick off their home opener in the Midwest Premier Football League Saturday after falling in the final minute of their inaugural game last weekend. The Snowmen went to Grand Forks to play the Tri-City Northstars in the opener and lost an 18-15 final to a team head coach JJ Kern says has lost just one road game in the past three years. It came down to the final seconds. The Snowmen were trailing by three and facing a third-and-15 on the Northstars' 25 yard line. They converted a play that was about half a yard short.
The Alexandria softball team dropped a couple of big games in section and conference play on Tuesday as Sauk Rapids-Rice swept a doubleheader in 6-2 and 7-4 finals. The Storm (10-8, 7-5 Central Lakes Conference) came in as the fourth seeded team in the QRF section standings but showed why this could be an open field. Sauk Rapids-Rice scored three runs in the first inning of game two and never trailed. It was a 7-1 before the Cardinals (11-7, 5-7 CLC) added three runs in the bottom of the seventh.
The Alexandria baseball team had no problem disposing of Sauk Rapids-Rice in a home doubleheader sweep on Tuesday. The Cardinals (12-5, 9-5 Central Lakes Conference) won 10-0 in five innings during the opener before exploding for even more runs in an 18-8 win in the nightcap.