Proctor pitcher catches Hermantown

by MARK STODGHILL staff writer

Chris Kindgren says he'll play wherever Proctor Coach Richard Petersson puts him on the baseball field, but his favorite position is catcher.

"I prefer to catch," Kindgren said. "When you're catching there is less to worry about. You just do your job and go up there and hit."

Kindgren didn't help his catching cause any Tuesday.

Instead of crouching behind the plate, he stood tall on the mound and pitched a one-hitter in edging Hermantown 3-2 in a Lake Superior Conference game at Terry Egerdahl Memorial Field in Proctor.

Paul Sorby's sixth-inning double was Hermantown's only hit.

Kindgren knew he was only six outs away from a no-hitter when Sorby laced a drive up the right-center field alley, but the junior didn't show any emotion when it happened.

"The bookkeeper told me about the fourth inning," Kindgren said. "I didn't worry about it. You don't expect to get a no-hitter. You expect them to get a hit sooner or later when you go around the order three times."

Kindgren, a 5-foot-10, 167-pounder, has an economical delivery. He pitches the way you might expect a catcher to. There's no wasted motion. He doesn't rock back. He just pivots his right foot on the rubber, pushes off and throws with pretty good velocity.

Kindgren estimated that 75 percent of his pitches were fastballs. He mixed in a sharp slider to strike out eight. He walked four. The football and hockey standout is 3-0 this season and has given up only three earned runs in three complete games.

Proctor was guilty of four errors and both Hermantown runs were unearned.

"The way we're playing, a win is a win and it's a conference win, but we're still not playing well," Petersson said. "The difference today is that we just got good pitching."

The Rails evened their record at 4-4 overall, 3-2 in the LSC, by getting all of their runs against Hermantown starter Bryan Ollila in the first inning.

Kindgren got it going by drawing a one-out walk. He stole second and came home on Mark Kieren's triple to right-center. Kieren scored on an error and Randy Fietek drove in another run with an infield single for a 3-0 lead.

"We're going to ignore the first inning from now on," Hermantown Coach Tom Ling said.

The Boys of Ling haven't had much ping in their aluminum bats recently. The Hawks were shut out by Esko on Monday and have lost four of their past five games in slipping to 4-5 overall, 3-2 in the LSC.

Ollila, now 3-2, did all he could for Hermantown Tuesday. He struggled through a 129-pitch performance, but didn't allow a hit from the second inning until the sixth when Todd Fontaine beat out an infield single. The junior right-hander gave up only three hits, two in the infield, but was in constant trouble with eight walks.

"He put himself in some bad spots, but he was able to come back with some guts," Ling said of his pitcher.

Proctor stole eight bases in nine attempts, but running into scoring position didn't do much good. Ollila stranded nine Rails.

Hermantown scored twice in the sixth. Dean Moore reached on an error, Sorby followed with his double and Ollila hit a sacrifice fly to right for one run. Tom Wallin's ground ball was booted for another error and Sorby came home, making it 3-2.

Kindgren got out of the inning with a pop up and retired the Hawks in order in the seventh, ending the game with a strikeout.

(Duluth News Tribune, May 7, 1986)