On the fifth day of its 2016 spring training trip into Harrison, Arkansas, the Anoka-Ramsey baseball team put together its best two performances of the early season.
While the result did not produce perfection it did provide a 3-2 win over host school North Arkansas College in the first game of a doubleheader. In fact, it was the first time in more than a dozen one-run games with North Arkansas that Anoka-Ramsey was able to take a lead into the seventh inning and hold it.
After committing more than 10 errors the previous day during a doubleheader split with the Lake Region State College team, Anoka-Ramsey played solid — errorless — defense on a comfortable March 17 afternoon in the Ozarks. And combined with the stellar pitching of Joe Lewis (Coon Rapids/Totino Grace) and some timely hitting by catcher Justin Reeves (Coon Rapids) and Brent Tholen (Isanti/St. Francis), Anoka-Ramsey had enough for the victory.
Lewis, a freshman, gave up seven hits, including four in the first inning. But the four hits only produced one North Arkansas run before the big lefty settled into a rhythm. North Arkansas scored another run in the third on a two-out hit, but did not threaten again as Lewis proved to be the more dominant personality over the final innings, punctuating his St. Patrick's Day statement with a big fat exclamation point by setting down the last eight batters he faced.
Furthermore, Lewis finished with six strikeouts and did not walk a batter.
As for the team's key hitting in support of its pitcher, Reeves transformed the 2-0 deficit into a 2-2 tie by slamming the first pitch he faced with two out in the top of the fifth over the left field fence for a two-run homer. The game-deciding blow, meantime, was delivered by Tholen with two out in top of the seventh — a run-scoring single.
Tholen, who was moved into the shortstop position for the game had gone hitless until the seventh. Prior to his appearance at the plate, Austin Greiner (Rogers) walked and with one out was bunted to second by Tanner Kinney (Princeton). It was from that point on the bases the Greiner scored when Tholen shot the ball through the hole between shortstop and third for a base hit.
Anoka-Ramsey did not stop with the 3-2 first game win and jumped to a 3-0 lead in in the top of the first inning of Game 2. It added two more runs in the fourth for a 5-2 lead, but North Arkansas quickly cut that margin back to one run, 5-4, a score which lasted until the sixth.
In the bottom of the sixth, Anoka-Ramsey starter Gabe Kastenmeier (Blaine/Totino Grace) tired and gave up a walk and two singles. Kastenmeier was replaced by Zack Waalen (Somerset) and could not stem the North Arkansas rally. A walk, a two-run single, then a back-breaking three-run homer turned what was hoped would be a doubleheader sweep into a 10-5 defeat.