It has been a long off season for the Outlaws so it was a great feeling taking the field this past weekend.  Most of the guys on the team haven't had a chance to even pick up a bat and ball since last August, but there were many bright spots in the 7 inning scrimmage.  

Sam Baumgartner and Jeff Miller picked up right where they left off last summer.  Sammy started the game and pitched 3 shutout innings, facing one batter above the minimum.  Sammy struck out 5 Heron Lake hitters while walking none and giving up only 1 hit.  Sammy said he felt really good after his off season knee surgery and having plenty of off time to heal his tweaked groin.  

Jeff Miller pitched the next two innings giving up only one unearned run while striking out 5 Laker hitters.  Miller looked sharp in his two innings of work and maintained his high strike out per innings pitched rate.  Jeffrey said he has been working hard this spring to get ready for the upcoming summer and it translated into another good pitching performance in the scrimmage.      

Ryan Carlson and Jeff Appel pitched the final two frames for the Outlaws.  

Offensively the Outlaws showed a bit of rust as they only punched out three hits over the seven innings.  Sam Baumgartner led off the game with a single in the 1st, Jeff Appel singled in the 2nd and Justin Williamson doubled in the 6th.  Troy Fritz reached in both of his at bats with two walks, Ryan Meyer, Mike Roth, Travis Schuett, Ryan Carlson and Jason Beckett also each reached base once with a walk.  

The hitting will come, as most Outlaws first look at a baseball was an hour prior to the scrimmage.  Extremely excited to watch Jeff Miller and Sam Baumgartner get back into action this summer as the heart of the Outlaw's pitching staff.  

The other big story of the day was Dennis Larson taking the field with his son Robb.  Not many father/son duos can make the claim they played up the middle together in a baseball game.  Now...Dennis and Robb can make that claim.  Everyone is hoping that we see the two together on the field again this summer.

With mother nature throwing yet another curve ball, the game with the MPLS Bombers scheduled for Sunday has been postponed.  The game has been moved to July in Welcome.  

Next up for the Outlaws is another scrimmage with yet another group of youngsters in Wilmont.  The Outlaws will be in Wilmont on Friday May 10th with first pitch at 7pm.  We hope to see many of you there!!!