Alexandria's late rally falls short in loss to Eden Prairie as Post 87 welcomes solid competition

It’s not often a team from a city the size of Eden Prairie comes up to play Alexandria in the middle of the week outside of a big weekend tournament, but Zimny Insurance American Legion Post 87 head coach Jake Munsch said it’s an indicator of Alexandria’s success.

Post 87 fell to Eden Prairie 7-6 after putting together a sixth-inning rally. Trailing by four, Devan Swerman delivered a double, scoring two runs. He later crossed home on Caleb Runge’s infield single before Eden Prairie stranded the tying run in scoring position.

“We’re confident in getting guys on base and staying confident with the next batter,” Munsch said. “Swerman came up with that big hit to get us close. They competed, and that’s all you can ask.”

Alexandria doesn’t see teams the size of Eden Prairie at Knute Nelson Memorial Park every week, but Munsch didn’t see his guys back down. Eden Prairie is coming off a 6-16 season out of Section 2-4A and the Lake Conference this past high school season. Part of getting bigger teams to make the trip up north is not backing down when they show up.

“I don’t think the guys were intimidated by any means,” Munsch said. “I think they enjoy the experience of playing the best possible teams that we can play. Our expectation for this program is to be the best we can possibly be. We’re not going to get better playing lower competition. We want to play the best programs out there and size ourselves up with them.”

Elijah Holthaus, who went 1-for-3 at the plate and threw 2.2 shutout innings, knew there would be challenges on Tuesday in playing an unfamiliar opponent.

“They’re a big-city team, so we knew they probably had some good players,” Holthaus said. “We played well this last weekend in Grand Rapids. We were coming off of quite a few wins, so we expected to keep it going. Our pitchers threw well tonight.”

Alexandria starting pitcher JD Hennen got in some trouble in the top of the third inning after retiring the first six batters in order. A leadoff walk and a single to left field set up a bunt from the last hitter in Eden Prairie’s batting order. An errant throw made it a 1-0 game before a wild pitch scored another.

Trailing 2-0, Post 87 hadn’t recorded a hit through its first 13 times at the plate. Holthaus led off the bottom of the fourth with a single before Nate Hammerback ripped a line drive base hit a few pitches later.

Holthaus scored on a wild pitch before Reed Reisdorf tied the game with a bloop single over the right side of the infield. Conner Lerfald pinch ran for Lake Hagen and scored the go-ahead run to take a 3-2 lead.

Eden Prairie kept its foot on the gas in the top of the fifth. Hennen surrendered a leadoff walk, which later came around to score on a soft single with the infield on the grass. Hennen’s day ended with four earned runs on six hits with nine strikeouts.

“JD has done a very good job and has been consistent for us,” Munsch said. “He goes out there and throws strikes, and our defense just needed to pick him up a little bit. Offensively, we gave him what he needed to get us back in that game. He’s a competitor. He wants the ball, and he wants to win. You can see that in the way he handles himself.”

Trailing by three after a two-run double, Munsch turned to Holthaus to get the final eight outs. He allowed just one hit and struck out four batters.

“Elijah did a very good job,” Munsch said. “He kept them at bay, and that’s all we can ask in that situation. He came into a difficult spot, but he’s a senior that’s been in that situation before. His experience goes a long way.”

Holthaus’ goal was to get out of the jam and spark a rally. He did that, but the rally came up one run short.

“I just wanted to give our team a chance,” Holthaus said. “JD threw well, but they took advantage of some opportunities. Our hitters lit it up at the end. It’s good to see everyone is hitting. It seems like we always make a rally towards the end of games. It’d be nice to see some early runs.”

Three of Eden Prairie’s seven runs were unearned and were the difference between winning and losing. Some errors are inevitable, but Post 87 aims to play smarter baseball as the summer moves on.

“Munsch always says physical mistakes will happen but mental mistakes will kill us,” Holthaus said. “We know that if we clean up the mental side, we’ll be sitting pretty good.”