Eagles Cut Down the Wildcats For Eighth Straight Win

Apple Valley’s red-hot Eagles continued their blazing streak through the best of the South Suburban Conference with a dramatic 4-3 baseball win at Eagan that was decided on the game’s final play.

Apple Valley led 4-3 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning and after getting the first two outs of the inning, it looked like the Eagles would earn the win sans drama.

However, that wasn't the case.

Eagan’s Brett Lindsey – No. 9 in the batting order – looped a single over the head of Apple Valley first baseman Reese Gopaul into shallow right field. That sent Eagan leadoff batter Eric Peterson to the plate and Peterson promptly ripped a pitch into deep left past the Apple Valley defense.

Lindsey raced past second and third and headed for home, only to find the ball already in the glove of Apple Valley senior catcher Aaron Gretz. Apple Valley’s Rhett Gopaul had tracked down the ball in left field, fired a strike to the cutoff man, who slammed a throw into Gretz who blocked the plate and easily nailed Lindsey out sending the Eagles to a happy celebration.

“That last defensive play was fantastic,” said Apple Valley head coach Jeremy Hendrickson. “It got over his head and he went to the wall and luckily there’s a short field here. And we turned it in and got it right to the cut man and the cut man threw a nice one-hopper to the catcher and the catcher tagged him out.”

The Eagles recorded their eighth straight win. Including in the streak have been a 9-1 win over No. 5 Burnsville, a 20-2 thrashing of Rosemount and a 13- mauling of Lakeville South in the team’s three previous games.

“We’re on a roll,” said Hendrickson. “We had to figure it out mentally at the beginning because physically I knew we could do it. Now we’re just trying to figure out how to put it all together. And now we’ve been doing that eight games in a row.”

Apple Valley improved to 11-5 in the conference and 13-6 overall.

Eagan slipped to 9-7 in the South Suburban Conference and 12-7 on the season.

The win by the Eagles also reversed an earlier 4-3 loss to the Wildcats back on April 25.

Up until the game’s final dramatics, it was mostly a routine, even, game. Both teams made their share of good plays and bad.

Apple Valley took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, scoring on an error.

Eagan then grabbed a 3-1 lead with three runs in the bottom of the second, opening the inning with back-to-back singles. Lindsey drove in the first run with a hit to center and then Eagan added two more on hit by Peterson and an Apple Valley error.

Apple Valley came right back and regained the lead with three runs in the top of the third inning. The Wildcats gave up a single, a walk and made a fielder’s choice before hurting their own cause in the inning by committing first a wild pitch and then a passed ball during a double by Apple Valley’s Doug Parks that tied the game at 3-all. Reese Gopaul followed with a run-scoring single to center which turned out to be the eventual game-winner.

“The best [thing we did] was the fielding behind me,” said Apple Valley senior Nate Reagles, who went the distance allowing five hits in the win. “We did have some struggled but definitely the team effort in the field, especially for the end of the game – big play right there. They’ve always helping me out.”

Chris Goodman led the Apple Valley defense with some spectacular plays at shortstop, including a memorable play in the second inning where he made a stop in the field and then ran down and made a leaping tag out of Eagan’s David Stevens as he was attempting to go to third. The play stopped a potential big inning for the Wildcats who had opened with back-to-back singles.

Apple Valley’s big defensive stops easily overcame three errors.

”We’ve been making no errors for a while now and that was kind of different for us to make some errors,” said Goodman. “We’ve really come along and pulled it together for defense. So it was a little different, but it worked for us.

“It was big for us, securing the third seed for the playoffs,” Goodman added.

It wasn’t a bad game for Eagan, but it was a bit of a frustrating one as the Wildcats just seemed a half-step slow Wednesday.

“We need to compete for seven innings and come to play every day,” said Eagan head coach Rob Walsh. “When we play that way we’re capable of playing with anybody. But we’ve got to be ready to compete every day.

“Even in the pregame we were a little bit flat,” said Walsh. “And we’ve seen that a time or two before and so we try and recognize it right away and make the adjustment.”

Apple Valley wraps up the regular season with a game against Prior Lake (7-9, 10-9) Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Alimagnet Park.

Eagan also plays Saturday at Alimagnet Park, meeting last place Rosemount (3-13, 4-14) in a game starting at 11 a.m.

                                                                        R         H         E

Apple Valley   103      000      0          --          4          4          3

Eagan              030      000      0          --          3          5          1