River Falls baseball cruises to 12-2 victory in season debut

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On Friday afternoon, the River Falls High School baseball team traded snow shovels for bats and gloves, and they looked pretty good doing it.

The Wildcats spent the better part of four hours the evening before shoveling the last remnants of snow off of First National Bank of River Falls Field in preparation for the team’s Opening Day contest against the visiting Tartan Titans of Oakdale, Minn.

Despite having not been outside a single time this season, the Wildcats found their stride as they scored seven runs in the fifth inning en route to a 12-2 drubbing of the Titans. River Falls improved to 1-0 for the year, but for head coach Ryan Bishop, playing outdoors and seeing his athletes get live action was the real victory.

“This was our first time out here without a shovel in our hands, so it’s a great feeling,” Bishop said. “I think we’re where we want to be, but it’s just good to get outside. We’ve got to fine-tune some things. We missed a few opportunities because we did some early-season things.”

Bishop ensured that as many athletes saw the field as possible in the season opener against Tartan on Friday, April 7. Approximately 20 Wildcats got action, including seven pitchers and half a dozen rotational players that are expected to see varsity time this year.

“I want to say there were about 20 or 21 kids that played today,” Bishop said. “This was our first time outside, so we had a lot of unanswered questions. We have a lot of guys that we feel confident and comfortable with, so tonight was a chance to try some different things.”

Although Friday afternoon was quite chilly, the Wildcats’ bats were red-hot. In the bottom of the first inning, River Falls senior catcher Elijah Baker blasted a two-run home run over the left field fence in his first plate appearance of the year.

Later in the second inning, senior Teddy Norman scored Zach Cleveland from third base on a fielder’s choice to make it a 3-0 contest favoring River Falls.

Tartan scored in the third and fourth innings to pull within one, 3-2, heading to the bottom of the fifth. That’s when River Falls hung a seven on the scoreboard and took a 10-2 lead that all but ended the game. The Wildcats added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth which secured the ten-run rule victory in the season opener.

The aforementioned Baker catalyzed the offensive salvo on Friday afternoon with his 2-4 performance at the plate that included the two-run home run, a single, and a pair of stolen bases. Bishop spoke about how Baker’s success early helped jump-start the rest of the offense.

“Some of the guys that we have high expectations for put good swings on the ball today,” Bishop said. “Eli getting one early is a huge thing for everybody’s confidence. It was great and we saw some good things out of the people that we expect to see good things from.”

River Falls supplemented its strong performance at the plate with effective baserunning. Five Wildcats combined to steal nine bases against Tartan, which boosted offensive production. Bishop spoke about his team’s crisp baserunning in the season opener.

“We were really happy after the game because we got some straight stolen bases and we ran the bases well,” Bishop said. “We also made some great dirt ball reads to take extra bases, and that’s a big deal. We know when we get to the Big Rivers that we’re going to have to take advantage of those opportunities, and I thought we did a nice job of that tonight.”

With the win, River Falls built early-season momentum heading into Tuesday’s Big Rivers Conference opener against Eau Claire Memorial, which preseason prognosticators expect to be near the top of the league standings again this season.

That contest between the two Big Rivers heavyweights is expected to be one of the best games on the schedule this year. River Falls will throw senior ace pitcher Keenan Mork against Memorial senior Roman Trapani.

Both Mork and Trapani are Division 1, college-bound pitchers. Mork has committed to Notre Dame and Trapani is slated to play at North Dakota State University. For coach Bishop, that level of talent on the hill will almost certainly make Tuesday a low-scoring, defensive affair.

“Keenan is our Tuesday guy,” Bishop said. “Assuming we see their ace, it’s going to be senior Roman Trapani, and he’s a Division 1 player. The hitters are going to have their hands full that night for both teams.”

River Falls hosts Memorial on Tuesday before traveling to Eau Claire on Thursday afternoon to complete the latter half of the two-game season series with the Old Abes.The first pitch for both games is slated for 4:30 p.m.

River Falls Baseball, Wildcats, WIAA, Big Rivers Conference