SLP Orioles Come Up Short Against BSM Red Knights

 On a rainy Friday night in St. Louis Park, the Benilde-St. Margaret's Red Knights scored four runs in the fifth inning as they took advantage of three St. Louis Park errors to lead them to a 7-6 win over the Orioles at Derrick Keller Field at Dakota Park.  

The Red Knights led off the game with a double from Caleb Koskie, son of former Twins Corey Koskie but he was stranded at second base since Oriole starting pitcher Kristofer Hokenson struck out the side.  

However, St. Louis Park would bat around in the bottom of the second as they would take the lead with four runs.  Zach Helfmann led off with a double, Andruw Vela singled and Henry Odens' single drove home Helfmann.  Vela would cross the plate on Hank Bendickson's RBI single and Brady Walsh ground out to second base scored Odens.  The fourth run would come on Stanley Regguinti's RBI single that scored Bendickson.  

BSM would cut the lead to three in the top of the third.  Two runs would score on wild pitches and an error by St. Louis Park shortstop Ben Farley would bring home Ben James.  

The Orioles would add a run in the bottom of the fourth that began with Walsh's leadoff double followed by singles from Sullivan and Hokenson following a throwing error by Red Knight catcher Sullivan Lawrence to give St. Louis Park a 5-3 lead.  

The lead didn't last as BSM would score four times in the top of the fifth due to three St. Louis Park errors.  The only hit of the inning was a one out double by James.  James, Easton Breyfogle and Tomas Lee crossed the plate for the Red Knights.  

St. Louis Park had a chance to send the fans to their warm homes happy in the bottom of the seventh.  Helfmann led off with a single, followed by Vela's double that put two runners in scoring position.  But Odens struck out and Bendickson popped to second, leaving the Orioles with one out to go.  Peter McBride, the third BSM pitcher, hit Walsh and Regguinti to load the bases.  But Sullivan hit into a force play to end the game.  

The Red Knights improved their record to 6-1 and will host the Cooper Hawks on Monday, May 2 at 7 PM.  The Orioles fell to 4-2 and host the Wayzata Trojans Saturday, April 30 at noon at Derrick Keller Field.  

Prior to the game, a moment of silence was held for former St. Louis Park head baseball coach Dan McEachran, who passed away April 14 at the age of 67.  

Orono Spartans Freeze SLP Orioles in Home Opener

 The weather was chilly Tuesday night for the St. Louis Park Girls Lacrosse team's belated home opener as Celia Dahl scored five goals to lead the Orono Spartans to a 18-5 rout of the host Orioles.  

The game marked the home debut for new Oriole head coach Kate Pearson, who replaced Kyle Sweeney.  Pearson moved to the Twin Cities from Denver.  

In the first half, the Spartans got on the scoreboard :34 into the game on Dahl's first goal from the right side of the net.  Ryan Rasmussen would tie the game and Lily Fandel Thompson would follow :13 later to put St. Louis Park in front.  The score would be even at two as Dylan Collins fired the ball part Oriole goalie Carina Otos.  St. Louis Park would regain the lead on Meg Ridgway's goal and that would be the last lead for the Orioles as Orono would wrap up the first half scoring with four unanswered goals.  Two would come from Dahl and Bridget Kringen and Lila James found the net to give the Spartans a 6-3 halftime lead.  

The second half would pick up where the Spartans left off as the extended their unanswered goal run to 10.  Two more goals would come from Dahl.  Also entering the scorebook for Orono were Layla Ragan, Haley Holzschuh, Kate McGrann and Caroline Close.  St. Louis Park got a little life when Riley Ridgway's center slot goal, ended the Orono run.  But the Spartans would send the game into running time and utilize their bench that resulted in another six goal run.  Close would score her second goal of the game and the same with James.  Macy Rasmussen (no relation to the Orioles Ryan) would get some varsity playing time and it paid off in a goal.  Dylan Collins added two more goals to extend the lead to 13 and St. Louis Park would end the run on Meg Ridgway's second goal.  That was all the offense the Orioles could generate as Holzschuh wrapped up the scoring with 1:36 to play.  

Orono improved their record to 2-1 and will travel to Waconia on Thursday, April 28 for a 4:30 game against the Wildcats.   St. Louis Park fell to 1-2 and will also be in action on the 28th as they head up Highway 169 to New Hope to take on the Cooper Hawks at 4 PM.  

Weather Picture Grim for First Full Week of SLP Oriole Athletics

 Monday starts the first full week of regular season action for the St. Louis Park athletic teams but the weather picture doesn't look good from Tuesday to later in the week.  

Looking at Monday's forecast, the outlook isn't bad with high temperatures in the upper 50s.  The Oriole baseball team opens their season on the road at Chaska Athletic Park against the Chaska Hawks.  They were supposed to have their home opener last Friday against the Bloomington Jefferson Jaguars but the game was postponed due unplayable field conditions.  No word on a rescheduled date yet. 

Now here's where the weather turns wet and cold.  Tuesday, the forecast is for showers and it could impact the girls golf team's season opener.  Not affected by the weather is the synchronized swim team's home opener since it's at St. Louis Park's home indoor pool.  

More showers are in the forecast for Wednesday, which is another potential baseball home opener, this time against Waconia.  But that could be postponed due to wet weather.  

It gets colder Thursday with snow showers impacting the girls lacrosse team's season opener against the Hopkins Royals.  The boys tennis team is also in action that day, hosting the Chanhassen Storm.  

The weather will still be cold the rest of the week.  Will the spring sports season finally begin or will fans have to wait to see their teams next week?  

ABC Cancels Three Prime Time Game Shows

 The prime time game show lineup ABC has airing for the last few years is going to get smaller.  

That's because the network has announced the cancellation of four of its prime time game shows.  They are Match Game, Card Sharks, The Hustler and Celebrity Dating Game.  

Match Game, hosted by Alec Baldwin was a revival of the long running celebrity panel game that was originally hosted by Gene Rayburn and for several years in a 1970s revival the top rated daytime show.  

Card Sharks was hosted by Joel McHale and was a big money incarnation of the game that was previously hosted by Jim Perry, Bob Eubanks and Bill Rafferty.  It would also come back in a short-lived version in 2001 that was hosted by Pat Bullard.  

The Hustler was hosted by former late night talk show host Craig Ferguson.  It was a trivia game that featured several contestants.  But one of them was designated The Hustler and given all the answers.  The object was for contestants to choose The Hustler in order to keep them from winning the pot.  

Celebrity Dating Game was co-hosted by Zooey Deschanel and Michael Bolton.  The original version was Chuck Barris' first game show and debuted on that network in December 1965.  

ABC said that the shows were canceled due to declining ratings.  

The good news for game show fans is that Celebrity Family Feud, Press Your Luck and The $100,000 Pyramid will return.  

Will there be any new game shows this summer on ABC or will there be other programs that take its place Stay tuned this summer.