Baseball Recap: St. Francis Takes a Loss

St. Francis was the 10-0 winner over North Branch when they last played one another back in April, but their luck changed this time around. The Fighting Saints fell just short of the Vikings by a score of 3-2 on Friday. The Fighting Saints have now taken an 'L' in back-to-back games.

St. Francis got a good showing from Nathaniel Esboldt, who pitched 3.2 innings while giving up no earned runs off one hit. Esboldt has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than one earned run any time he's pitched this season.

On the hitting side, St. Francis saw three different players step up and record at least one hit. One of them was Cooper Fiskewold, who went 2-for-3 with one run and one double. Another was Tayler Hardie, who went 2-for-3 with one stolen base and one RBI.

St. Francis' record is now 9-6. As for North Branch, their victory ended a four-game drought at home and bumped them up to 3-12.

Both squads are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. St. Francis will host Rocori at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. The two teams have allowed few runs on average (the Fighting Saints 2.1, the Spartans 4) so any runs scored will be well earned. As for North Branch, they will look to defend their home field on Tuesday against Cambridge-Isanti at 4:30 p.m.