The Cardinal baseball team split a pair of conference games last week, losing for the first time this season, 6-2 to Litchfield, after crushing Watertown-Mayer 12-2. That left Annandale with a 2-1 record in the Wright County Conference and a 3-1 overall mark. The Cardinals were behind 6-0 by the third inning of their home contest with Litchfield on Thursday, April 20. The Dragons scored three in the first inning and another three in the third, rapping out six hits and taking two walks. The Cardinals got one back in the fourth as Mike Boxell, Ben Jungers and Dustin Smith all singled. They added another in the seventh when Kyle Kaskinen led off with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Bert Marsnik. But it was too little, too late. The Dragons had six runs on 10 hits and an error vs. two runs, five hits and three errors for Annandale. Sam Marsnik started and took the loss, his first against one win. Boxell took the mound in the fifth and pitched three shutout innings. Smith was two for three at the plate. “We need to keep working on some little things to get better,” coach Ron Starke said. “We are facing some very good opponents and need to play our A game. We have a great group of guys and we will keep getting better, because they are willing to work at it.” The Cardinals had it all their way on Tuesday, April 18, when they jumped out with seven runs in the first inning on three straight errors by the Royals and hits by Boxell, Smith, Kaskinen and Charlie Geldert. Annandale added two more in the second on Kaskinen’s single and a two-run, 380-foot homer by Geldert. The Cardinals scored another in the fourth and two more in the fifth on singles by Sam Marsnik, Kaskinen and Geldert. Boxell started and gave up a hit while striking out three in two innings. The win improved his record to 2-0. Jungers gave up two runs and five hits in three innings before the game ended because Annandale was 10 runs ahead. The Cardinals collected 12 runs on 12 hits and committed two errors. W-M had two runs on six hits and made six errors. Geldert was four for four with three runs batted in, while Kaskinen was two for two. Graham Brown, Zach Sonsteby and Shay Klitzke also had hits. The Cardinals were scheduled to travel to Delano on Tuesday, April 25, and to host Waconia at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 27. Both are WCC contests. Next week’s schedule calls for Annandale to take on Rogers at Rogers in a non-conference game Monday, May 1, and to meet Mound-Westonka at home in a WCC doubleheader at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 2.
