Black Sox win 4 of 5 as key players return

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The Rosemount Black Sox town baseball team’s season started a week earlier than normal this season.

The Cannon Valley League made the decision for the early start and the schedule change didn’t offer any help to Rosemount.

The Black Sox have struggled at times early in past seasons while waiting for their college players to return to town. This year’s early start left Rosemount shorthanded.

“We only had maybe 11 guys for some of those games,” Black Sox coach Matt Tschida said. “Maybe only nine or 10 for some of them too.”

Without a full crew, Rosemount lost its first six games. More players have since returned and the Black Sox (4-7) have won four of their last five games, including a 2-1 performance at last week’s Cannon Falls tournament.

After an 8-3 loss against the Minneapolis Rocks in their first game, Rosemount battled back to take the consolation bracket by beating Lonsdale, 16-9, and Elko, 14-5.

“It’s starting to go a lot better now that we’ve got all of our guys back,” Tschida said. “The early start really hurt us because we didn’t have all of our normal guys.”

When the Black Sox do settle in with a full lineup, Tschida expects to recover quickly.

Consistency early in seasons has been a key for Rosemount, and with a veteran group returning this year, Tschida doesn’t expect a long transition period.

“I think once we got more consistent games it will help the hitting, which we saw this weekend with three games in three days,” Tschida said. “It really helps the rhythm offensively. I think most of the guys will be there for every game now and we have a steady schedule until the Fourth of July break.”

After a road game at Veseli tonight, the Black Sox host three games this weekend. Rosemount plays Eagan on Saturday at 2 p.m. and follows with a doubleheader against Inver Grove Heights on Sunday, starting at 2 p.m.

The Black Sox will be missing Loren Sjoquist, an all-star last year, who has moved on to play in a different league, and Tschida, who is out with an injury. But Tschida believes the offense will have enough punch.

“Offensively, this is one of the deeper lineups we’ve had in a while,” Tschida said. “It should be a pretty deep team offensively. We’ll be able to really mix guys in and not worry about missing other guys because they can hit almost as well.”

Chris Adams has hit a team-high .444 over 36 at-bats. Ben Lemke has hit .357 with a team-high nine RBIs in his seven games. Adams had limited action for the Black Sox last year and Lemke was out with an injury.

Lemke is filling in at shortstop and will also be one of the team’s top pitchers.

Jason Kirschman had hit .303 over 33 at-bats with the team’s lone home run and five RBIs. Andy Schwantes has scored a team-high 10 runs to go with six stolen bases as the leadoff hitter, and Lance Anderson is hitting .323.

Robby Larsen is a newcomer to Rosemount and is hitting .296. Larsen has also pitched 12 1/3 innings.

Justin Wallace leads the team with a 2.50 ERA over 18 innings pitched. He’s struck out 13 batters.

Michael Robohm has accumulated a 2.63 ERA in 13 2-3 innings pitched.

Anderson has taken most of the mound work so far, pitching 22 innings already.

Tags: sports, rosemount, baseball, proam