River Rats fall at River Falls

• Hudson River Rats pitcher Paul Johnson

Hudson River Rats pitcher Paul Johnson fires a pitch to the plate in the fourth inning of the Rats’ 6-2 loss to the St. Croix Valley Baseball League leaders, the River Falls Fighting Fish, Sunday in River Falls. Johnson allowed four earned runs in six innings before giving way to Brian Sparstad. Photo by Bob Burrows

Talk about it

The Hudson River Rats jumped out to an early 2-0 lead against the St. Croix Valley Baseball League leading River Falls Fighting Fish Sunday, but the Fish came back with six unanswered runs on their way to defeating Hudson, 6-2.

Hudson will get another crack at the Fish when they host River Falls this Sunday, July 10, at 1 p.m. at Grandview Park.

Last Sunday at River Falls, Hudson took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third when Jason Hollar reached on an error and Mitch Lewis followed with a single. Hollar scored on a single by Brent Blegen and Lewis came around to score on a base hit by Andy Edholm.

River Falls cut Hudson’s lead in half with a run in the bottom of the third then scored three more times in the fourth to take the lead for good.

Hudson had a runner on third in both the fifth and sixth innings but couldn’t produce another run.

Lewis had three hits to lead the Rats at the plate while Derek Krumrei had two hits and Hollar, Blegen, Edholm and Ben Christensen each had a single.

Paul Johnson worked the first six innings on the mound and took the loss, allowing four earned runs on seven hits with three strikeouts and three walks. Brian Sparstad pitched the final two innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits with no strikeouts and one walk.

The loss dropped the Rats’ record to 2-6 in SCVBL play, 2-8 overall. They will face the Osceola Braves Saturday at 7 p.m. at Oakey Park in Osceola before hosting a rematch with River Falls Sunday at 1 p.m.

Tags: sports, baseball, proam