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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Isaac Infanger was a third-grader more than 1,000 miles from home at the Sinai Hospital in Baltimore recovering from another surgery in 2008. What would have been a scary situation for most kids was nothing new for him. Isaac, now 18 and a senior at Osakis High School, has had 20 surgeries to try and fix issues that stem from a condition called Leg Length Discrepancy. This visit to Baltimore, though, was supposed to finally be a solution.
Alexandria's 4x400 relay team gathered together to say a prayer with everything on the line going into the final race at the Section 8AAA True Team meet on May 9. After more than 20 years of not winning a true team section title, senior Madi Gay said these girls were confident that this was the group that could beat a perennially strong program in St. Michael-Albertville. All that was left to do was beat the Knights head-to-head in the final relay to at least force a tie and virtual meet in the computer system.
The Brandon-Evansville softball team got two wins on Monday that propelled this group into at least a share of the Pheasant Conference championship. The Chargers (14-4, 11-3 Pheasant) ousted Hillcrest Lutheran Academy (9-4, 8-3 Pheasant) 13-2 in five innings after taking the opener 7-6. The Comets came in with just one loss atop the conference but left after falling into third place with West Central Area at 10-3 in second place.
BASEBALL Alexandria vs. Sauk Rapids-Rice (DH), 4 p.m. Osakis @ SJP, 5 p.m. Parkers Prairie @ Pillager, 4:30 p.m. Minnewaska @ Montevideo, 5 p.m. SOFTBALL Alexandria @ Sauk Rapids-Rice (DH), 4 p.m. Osakis vs. Bertha-Hewitt, 4:30 p.m.
BASEBALL Brandon-Evansville @ Hillcrest, 5 p.m. WCA vs. Hancock, 5 p.m. Ashby @ WHN, 5 p.m. Minnewaska at New London-Spicer, 5 p.m. Osakis vs. Upsala-Swanville Area, 5 p.m. BOYS GOLF Osakis @ Paynesville, 9 a.m.
Anglers didn’t have to battle any wind or rain during Minnesota’s fishing opener this morning. If anything, many were wishing for a little more cloud cover. Temperatures were nearing 80 degrees under sunny skies in the Alexandria area by late morning, and the bite wasn’t near as hot for a handful of anglers on Lake Reno. The body of water is one of the more popular fisheries in the area, but those coming off around 11 a.m. on Saturday were having a tough time figuring out where to find walleyes.
Ben and Ross Anderson were young kids when their dad, Pat, would get them out of bed early in the morning to go down to the ballpark to prepare the field for a game later that day. At the time, they had no choice. Today, they remember back on that and smile. They took a 10-day trip to tour nine different baseball stadiums with their dad in 2011 - Boston, New York, Pittsburgh and Chicago the cities among them.
BASEBALL Alexandria vs. Brainerd, 5 p.m. Osakis vs. Browerville-EV, 5 p.m. WCA vs. Hillcrest, 4 p.m. Parkers Prairie vs. Sebeka, 4:30 p.m. GIRLS GOLF Minnewaska @ Hutchinson, 1 p.m. SOFTBALL Brandon-Evansville @ Ortonville (DH), 4 p.m.
The Alexandria baseball team gave away a two-run lead on Thursday night before taking it back in walk-off fashion in a 4-3 win over Rocori. The Spartans (7-6, 6-6 Central Lakes Conference) scored twice in the top of the seventh to tie things at three apiece. The Cardinals (10-4, 7-4 CLC) didn't waste any time responding as Connor Busse led off with a double before walks from Brock and Blake Anderson loaded the bases with one out. That brought Conner Hammerback to the plate as the senior delivered a walk-off single to score Busse with the winning run.
The Alexandria tennis team ran into a Central Lakes Conference power in St. Cloud Tech on Thursday at the AAHS courts and fell in a 7-0 final. Alexandria sophomore JJ Foster pushed the Tigers the most in his first singles match with Eric Inderieden. Foster forced a tiebreaker in the first set but fell 7-6 (2) before dropping the second set 6-0. Tech took care of every match in straight sets. "I feel our guys played quite well at most every spot, but the Tigers seemed to have an answer for everything we tried," Alexandria head coach Dave Ronning said.