by Max Mercy

St. Cloud Cathedral defeated Proctor, 6-1, in a non-conference baseball game on Saturday, April 23, at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud. The Crusaders, who held the Rails to just one hit, increased their multi-season win streak to 58 games.

Winning pitcher Bryce Boever went five innings and allowed one run on one hit and two walks with eight strikeouts. Jeremiah Thyen pitched two innings in relief and allowed one walk with two strikeouts.

Cathedral took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. The inning began with back-to-back walks to Rudy Saurer and Quinton Young. Sam Nelson's double to the left-centerfield gap on an 0-2 pitch plated Saurer and sent Young to third base. With one out, Reggie Deyak hit an RBI groundout to second baseman Derek Dahlgren, scoring Young. Jack Schramel hit a two-out RBI single scoring Nelson for the third run.

Zack Sufka led off the bottom of the third inning with a home run to give Cathedral a 4-0 cushion.

The Crusaders took a 6-0 lead in the fourth. Boever led off with a single and advanced to second base on a passed ball. He took third base on a groundout by Deyak. Schramel then bounced a grounder back to Proctor starting pitcher John Aase, who trapped Boever off of third base for a pitcher-to-catcher (Reid Morin) fielder's choice for the second out. Camren Dehler was then hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Reagen Garden and Sufka then delivered back-to-back RBI singles to cap Cathedral's scoring.

Proctor was held hitless until Aase led off the top of the fifth with a home run that bounced off the top of the leftfield wall. It was his second home run in two days, following his grand slam in Friday night's win over Mesabi East.

Aase (1-1 W-L, 4.20 ERA) finished strong, with three strikeouts out of the four batters he faced -- Nelson hit a one-out single -- in the fifth. Aase allowed six runs on seven hits, two walks, and two hit batsmen. He had seven strikeouts.

Rain and lightning delayed the game for more than a half hour at the end of five complete innings.

Thyen pitched in relief of Boever when play was resumed.

Lucas Nordquist pitched one scoreless inning in relief of Aase. Nordquist surrendered a leadoff double to Schramel and Schramel advanced to third on a groundout by Dehler. Garden walked, putting runners on the corners. On a botched hit-and-run play, Nordquist induced a pop-out to Dahlgren off the bat of Sufka and Dahlgren's throw to first baseman Matt Sievert was just ahead of the retreating Garden for a double play to end the inning.

Sievert drew a two-out walk in the top of the seventh, but besides a leadoff walk by Matt Morris in the second inning and Aase's home run in the fifth, it was all the Rails' offense could muster.

Proctor is now 3-2. The Rails are back in action on Monday, April 25, as they take on the Virginia Blue Devils at home.

Rails Notes

Jake Malec moved into sole possession of third place on the PHS all-time games played list, with 81. He was tied with Tyler Pionk (Class of 2011) at 80. Ahead of Malec are Ian Scherber (Class of 2012), 89; and Jimmy Merling (Class of 2013), 91…Malec is now seventh in PHS all-time plate appearances, with 257. He moved ahead of Drew Scherber (Class of 2007), 254, and Jesse Scanlon (Class of 2012), 256…Matt Morris now has 151 career plate appearances. He is the 42nd PHS player on record to reach 150…Nathan Carlson now has 101 career plate appearances. He is the 85th PHS player on record to reach 100. Matt Sievert is right behind him, at 97.