To be able to within 24 hours turn that around and put it right in, in baseball that’s not an easy thing but a testament to our kids, we did it.”

Park head coach Dave Darr

After a brutal season-opening stretch that saw Park lose eight of its first nine games – including two one-run contests, the Wolfpack needed a break.

Instead, they made their own Friday in a 7-1 win over visiting Forest Lake that came of so close to being a shutout.

Park had endured seven games and 16 days without a win since the opener against Irondale, including narrow one-run losses to White Bear Lake and Stillwater, and a painful 11-9 defeat to Woodbury at home the previous week.

But on Friday all the Wolfpack eyes were shining at the end.

“We played four games this week,” said Park head coach Dave Darr. “On Monday we threw it well and we fielded well but we didn’t hit it as consistent as we wanted to and we had some chances so out hitting wasn’t as good. Tuesday, we hit the ball well, but we didn’t pitch well, and we didn’t field well at Hastings. And then against Stillwater we threw really well, we fielded really well, and we just couldn’t hit. So, we’ve just been preaching them we really need to improve our approach of the balls that we’re trying to hit instead of hitting the pitcher’s pitch, trying to hit ours early in the count and we did a lot better job of that today. We worked a lot on that yesterday in practice.

‘To be able to within 24 hours turn that around and put it right in, in baseball that’s not an easy thing but a testament to our kids, we did it,” Darr continued. “You could tell it was a much more focused in that regard. And we saw it. We had good at bats. We hit the ball. We even had times where we hit the ball really hard and nothing to show for it, but you can’t control that. We had the right approach and we’ve been kind of trending this way.”

Park took a 1-0 lead in the third inning, then stretched it to 2-0 in the fourth and 7-0 in the sixth. Forest Lake managed a ‘so-what’ two-out run in the top of the seventh to avoid the shutout. Park outhit the visitors 9-3.

Junior first baseman Dominic Nellessen got the Wolfpack started with a leadoff single in the first and eventually scored the first run of the game. Nellessen went 2-for-4 with three stolen bases.

Nick Nienow had two singles, Joey Chilton had a single, two stolen bases and scored a run, Ryan Roy had a double, and Connor Holton went 2-fgor-3 and scored a run.

“I feel like we hit the ball well,” said Holton. “I feel like the approach was better after our good practice yesterday, so I feel that was much improved. I feel like we were swinging at pitches that we should be, come up with more confidence.

“Not a great start, but we’ve been there in a few games so I feel like this is the game that could push us over the edge maybe,” Holton added.

Max Kaplan started on the mound and gave up just two hits with four strikeouts in six innings before being relieved by Brady Zander in the seventh.

“We just got to stay consistent,” said Kaplan. “Yesterday in practice – we had a lot of games this week – in practice we were working on our at-bats, and I think we brought that to the plate today and had a lot more disciplined at bats and that showed in the outcome of the game. … We’ve just got to keep battling liken we did today.”

Hastings 11, Park 8

Park’s losing streak reached six games with an 11-8 non-conference loss at Hastings Tuesday.

Stillwater 1 Park 0

The tough losses kept coming for the Wolfpack as Park dropped a 1-0 heartbreaker to visiting Stillwater Wednesday at Cottage Grove.

Park went in having lost two one-run games, one two-run game and one three-run contest.

The Wolfpack host sixth ranked and league-leading Cretin-Derham Hall (7-1, 7-1) Wednesday, play at Irondale (1-7, 2-7) on Friday, then go to eighth-ranked East Ridge (4-4, 5-4) on Wednesday, May 7.