VFW Baseball: Post 7662 recovers from rout

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Farmington’s VFW baseball team has shown its share of resiliency this summer.

The young team, led by a group of young, first-year head coaches, struggled defensively early on in the season and dug itself into a hole with a 2-6 start. Post 7662 responded with a stretch of seven wins in 11 games, including a strong showing at the Apple Valley Babe Ruth Tournament two weeks ago, to get back within striking distance of the .500 mark. The team faced another setback Tuesday after a lopsided 19-0 home loss to Eden Prairie, but once again bounced back by scoring a 5-2 victory Thursday at Prior Lake.

Dayne Eich provided another quality outing in the win, tossing all seven innings. He scattered seven hits and struck out eight Prior Lake batters.

“He’s been one of our best pitchers all year,” coach Jake Sand said. “His fastball was really good against Prior Lake and he was catching hitters off guard. When he knew they were trying to catch up with the fastball, he switched to the curveball. He’s confident with both pitches and they didn’t know what he was going to throw them.”

Eich got two runs of support before taking the mound in the bottom of the first. Zach Wallace started the game with a double and moved to third when Stephen Barber reached on an error by the Prior Lake shortstop. Both runners came around to score on a two-RBI single by Quinn Eden.

Prior Lake tied the score with two runs in the bottom of the fourth, but Post 7662 responded with two of its own in the top of the fifth. Matt Molitor got the rally started with a single and stole second before scoring on an RBI single by Barber. Tommy Korbein followed with another RBI single to stretch the lead back to 4-2.

Barber reached base and scored for a third time to provide an insurance run in the top of the seventh. He drew a leadoff walk, stole second and moved to third on a passed ball before coming home on Korbein’s sacrifice fly.

Post 7662’s offense produced just one hit, a second-inning single by Eden, in Tuesday’s 19-0 loss to Eden Prairie.

Eden Prairie took control with eight runs in the top of the first inning. Its first four batters drew walks against starter Molitor and the first seven batters came around to score before the first out was recorded.

Molitor walked six in the first inning and left after two innings trailing 14-0.

“We couldn’t put the ball across the plate,” Sand said. “They didn’t get a hit until their sixth batter. Molitor is really good when he’s on, but sometimes he has control issues with his fastball. That wasn’t his night, unfortunately.”

Korbein came on in relief of Molitor and allowed one run in two innings. Justin Wollff took the mound in the top of the fifth and gave up five more runs as Eden Prairie capped off an 11-hit outing.

Post 7662 closed out its regular season schedule with two games earlier this week. The team traveled west to take on Jordan at the Mini-Met on Monday, then headed to Minnetonka play its finale on the artificial turf of Veterans Field on Tuesday. The Sub-District Tournament gets under way Friday.

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