Baseball: Alexandria falls to Willmar in doubleheader at home

ALEXANDRIA - The Alexandria Cardinals baseball team fought tooth and nail with the Willmar Cardinals in a doubleheader on Friday, but things didn't go as planned for Alexandria.

Willmar swept Alexandria, winning game one 4-3 and game two 8-4, dropping Alexandria to 9-5 on the season. It was a matchup of two programs that hope to be contenders to win Section 8-3A by season's end.

Alexandria jumped on Willmar early in game one, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning on RBI hits from Lake Hagen and Jaxon Schoenrock. But for the next five innings, the Alexandria bats were cold and scored zero runs.

Trailing 3-2 in the seventh inning, Alexandria scored a run on a sacrifice bunt by third baseman Reed Reisdorf.

“We actually had a conversation about that right before,” Reisdorf said. “We were talking about it and then (the coaches) go, ‘I think we have the right guy to do it.’ One thing I try to work on during batting practice is drag bunting and those kinds of things. Last year, I actually got on base quite a few times with that and my speed.”

Sam Stuve / Alexandria Echo Press

Willmar responded to Reisdorf driving in the game-tying run by scoring the game-deciding run in the bottom of the seventh to win game one 4-3.

Willmar scored the final run on a play where there was a base hit, a runner was tagged out at home, then the ball was thrown to second and a runner from third then broke for home and got there in the nick of time before Alexandria catcher Lake Hagen could apply the tag.

“We came back in that first game and it ended on a goofy play,” Alexandria head coach Jake Munsch said. “You can't concentrate on what you did wrong. You have to move forward and concentrate on the next game. I thought that guys did a good job of that.”

In game two, the momentum Willmar created at the end of game one carried over to game two as it scored three runs in the first two innings combined.

Alexandria did the same with Hagen knocking in a run on a fielder's choice and Lerfald scoring on a passed ball. Nate Hammerback tied the game at three with an RBI single in the bottom of the second.

Sam Stuve / Alexandria Echo Press

The game was deadlocked at three apiece until Alexandria scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the fourth inning. Schoenrock scored the run.

Willmar responded swiftly by scoring three runs in the top of the fifth to take a 6-4. Willmar added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh and held on to win.

For Alexandria, this is its third loss this week, with the other being a 5-0 shutout to Sauk Rapids-Rice . But Alexandria isn’t about to hit the panic button.

“Every season, you run through a little bump in the road, and I think we're there right now,” Munsch said. “One thing that we've improved on is we've been playing better defensively than we were when we were winning all those games. Offensively, we’ve struggled a little bit. That's just part of the ups and downs of a season. I don't think you panic. I think you just trust what you're doing and I think that we're doing a lot of things really well and if a couple of hits fall here and there, the score is different.”

1/12: Alexandria's Nick Levasseur throws a pitch in a game against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

2/12: Alexandria's Nate Knoll runs home to score a run in game one of a doubleheader against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

3/12: Alexandria catcher Lake Hagen tries to tag a Willmar runner and prevent him from scoring.

4/12: Alexandria second baseman Brock Lerfald leaps for an overthrown ball in a game against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

5/12: The Alexandria bench cheers after Reed Reisdorf knocked in the game-tying run against Willmar on May 13, 2022. Alexandria lost both games of the doubleheader.

6/12: Alexandria's Parker Jendro throwing a pitch in a game against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

7/12: Alexandria's Jaxon Schoenrock lays down a bunt in a game against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

8/12: Alexandria's Grady Anderson throws the ball into the infield in a game against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

9/12: Alexandria shortstop JD Hennen throws the ball to first base for an out in a game against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

10/12: Alexandria's Spencer Schmidt throws a pitch during a game on May 13, 2022, against Willmar.

11/12: Alexandria's JD Hennen was the starting pitcher in game one of a doubleheader against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

12/12: Alexandria's Kaleb Runge swinging for the fences in a game against Willmar on May 13, 2022.

Munsch is optimistic about his team’s chances of getting things going in the right direction again.

“I have all the confidence in the kids staying very positive with them,” Munsch said. “We'll show up next week and play hard again.”

JD Hennen got the start for Alexandria in game one and Nick Levasseur came on in relief in the fourth inning. Parker Jendro got the start in game two and Spencer Schmidt came on in relief in the fifth inning.

Alexandria is back at home for a game against Rocori at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.