The River Falls High School baseball team had its first taste of live action for the year as the Wildcats defeated the Orioles of Osseo, Minn., 8-4 in the season opener on Monday afternoon at First National Bank Stadium in River Falls.

The star of the game was Wildcats ace pitcher junior Keenan Mork, who spent four innings on the mound, gave up only three hits, no earned runs and tallied 10 strikeouts in his Monday afternoon performance.

Mork was excellent in his time on the bump, especially early. Going into the bottom of the third inning, he had only given up one hit and had already struck out seven Orioles batters. Shortly thereafter, the River Falls bats came to life with some situationally great offense that included bunting and taking advantage of Osseo’s mistakes.

After senior center fielder Michael Schurman was hit by a pitch to begin the inning, he stole second base to get himself into scoring position. That’s when senior second baseman Owen Larson stepped up to the plate and laid down a bunt to move Schurman over to third base.

The perfectly placed bunt by Larson gave Osseo issues, as one of the middle infielders committed an error on the throw to first which allowed Schurman to score standing up to give River Falls a 1-0 lead.

However, the Wildcats’ offense wasn’t done. A couple of sacrifice fly balls scored another run later in the inning to give River Falls a 2-0 lead. A single to center field by junior Teddy Norman and a double to the right field gap by senior shortstop Ragan Pinnow put two runners on base with junior catcher Elijah Baker at the plate.

Baker saw a pitch he liked and drove it to the gap, scoring Pinnow and Norman from second and third base respectively to give the Wildcats a 4-0 lead heading to the top of the fourth inning. Mork’s excellence on the mound for River Falls continued, as he struck out three of the first four batters of the fourth inning which ultimately ended his first start of the year.

River Falls head coach Ryan Bishop spoke about Mork’s performance as well as the two pitchers who appeared in relief, senior Jack Gehl and the aforementioned Norman.

“Those are three of our main throwers and this was their opportunity to get a final tune-up before next Tuesday when we start conference play against a very good (Eau Claire) Memorial team,” Bishop said. “This was good for them, two of them hadn’t thrown yet this year. It was good for them to get their feet wet. Each year it’s important to get that first outing in. You can see what Keenan (Mork) is capable of, his ball has a lot of life to it.”

While the starting pitching was more than acceptable from Mork, the offense was equally as good. After scoring four runs in the bottom of the third, the Wildcats tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 7-0 lead that River Falls would never relinquish. Bishop spoke about the offense.

“These guys know that we have high expectations of them to do the little things right offensively, whether that’s bunting, hit-and-run, steal, or just tagging up,” Bishop said. “We talk a lot about that, and they’ve bought into that. They did a great job with it last year and I expect it to continue where we left off last year.”

In the waning innings of the game, River Falls gave up four runs but still cruised to an 8-4 victory to improve to 1-0 for the 2022 season. Bishop stated that it was a good experience to be playing a game outside at this time of year and that he saw improvements on his team, even in those three hours of baseball Monday afternoon.

“Overall, we don’t get a lot of opportunities to be outside early in the year,” Bishop said on that chilly Monday afternoon. “It’s a learning experience for guys and I thought we made some good adjustments today. We got better today than we were in the scrimmage and we got better in the fourth and fifth innings than we were in the first and second. We did things that you expect your team to do in the first couple of games of the year and we were happy with that.”

River Falls is expected to play its second game of the year at home against the Osceola Chieftains on Tuesday, April 4, weather permitting. That game will be played at First National Bank Stadium in River Falls.

River Falls junior pitcher Keenan Mork delivers a pitch during his first start of the year in the season opener against Osseo, Minn., at First National Bank Stadium in River Falls. Mork pitched four innings and gave up no earned runs. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

Senior second baseman of the River Falls baseball team Owen Larson slides into home plate safely as he scores the second run of the year for the Wildcats in the bottom of the third inning.

Photo by Reagan Hoverman