Shakopee Indians defeat Eagan
Posted on Jul 23, 2020

By Todd Abeln

swnewsmedia.com


 

One big inning propeled the Shakopee Indians to big win on Tuesday night.

 

Shakopee scored eight runs in the sixth inning and went on to beat the Eagan Bandits 9-4 at Schleper Stadium.

 

That win improved Shakopee's River Valley League record to 3-4 on the season, which puts them in a tie for fourth place.

 

"It was a nice win last night as we finally put some hitting together scoring eight times in the sixth inning," manager Gary Schleper said. "We have been pretty inconsistent in all facets of the game all year, but we are hopeful we are starting to turn the corner and playing better baseball."

Shakopee came to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning trailing 2-1 but exploded for eight runs to go up 9-2.

 

In that big inning, the first six Shakopee batters reached base. Patrick Rients and John Hellkamp had the big hits in the inning as they had back-to-back doubles to score four runs.

 

Rients batted twice in that inning and drove in his third run of that inning with a single.

 

By the time the inning was over, the Indians had sent 14 batters to plate and had collected seven hits, four bases on balls and a hit batter.

 

Zach Henderson started on the mound for the Indians and pitched six strong innings giving up two runs on four hits.

 

Prior to beating Eagan, Shakopee lost to league leading Chanhassen and beat Chaska.

 

Chanhassen, the two-time defending state champions, beat Shakopee 11-2 on Sunday night at Schleper Stadium.

Chanhassen pulled away from Shakopee with five runs in the third inning, two in the sixth and three more in the ninth.

In the win against Chaska last Friday at Athletic Park in Chaska, the Indians scored two runs in the top of the eight inning to win 3-2.

Trailing 2-1 heading into the eighth inning, Shakopee rally started with Kyle Ryan base hit.

A Brandon Olson bunt hit and a single by Steven Boldt loaded the bases with no outs, Rients was walked to score Ryan and tie the game at 2-2.

Dominick Schleper put Shakopee up 3-2 with a sacrifice fly.

Alex Schneider relieved Sam Ludzack in the bottom of the eighth inning and got the final six outs to get the save and 3-2 win. Ludzack gave up just five hits and two runs in seven innings of work to earn the win on the mound.

Next

 

Shakopee has only four games left in the regular season before the Section 3B playoffs start in August.

They host Chaska on Friday night before playing back-to-back games against the Prior Lake Jays on Sunday and Tuesday. They wrap up the regular season against Dundas on Friday, July 31 in Dundas.

"The key for us will be our pitching," Schleper said. "If our guys can throw strikes we should be right in every game. We need to give our hitters some time to get on track."