The Chanhassen Red Birds clinched 3rd place in the Central Division of the River Valley League with a 10 - 0 win over the visiting Waconia Lakers in 8 innings on Thursday evening.

Line Score:

Waconia   000  000  00   0-6-2  LOB 11

Chanhassen  110  700  01  10-16-0  LOB 5

The raucous crowd on hand for KleinBank Night was treated to a slug fest as Chanhassen pounded out three doubles and 13 singles while scoring one run in the 1st and 2nd innings and 7 runs in the 4th to put the game out of reach.  A wild pitch with bases loaded in the bottom of the 8th scored the 10th run to shorten the game only slightly.

After getting the leadoff batter around to score in both the 1st and 2nd innings, the Red Bird scoreboard lit up with 7 runs on 6 hits and 2 Laker errors as 12 men came to the plate.

Casey Malmgren, starter and WP, worked 7 innings scattering 5 hits and 6 walks while getting 6 K.  He was also helped by two double plays.   John Skubic worked the 8th inning and after a double off the left field wall by Waconia All-Star, Jeremy Salden and two walks, a line smash to John Gulden at 3rd and a quick throw to 1st caught the runner off base for a double play.  Skubic then got Laker SS, Robbie Smothers to fly out to Adam Heitz in left field who made a circus catch to end the inning.

The Red Birds offense that had sputtered during several games this season got heated up with Heitz, Pavlovich, Brenner and John Gulden each getting three hits.  Malmgren added 2 hits to help his cause, and Brenner and Heitz each had 2 RBIs.   Timely hits with men in scoring position made a difference as the Red Birds left only 2 of the 5 runners stranded in scoring position.

Red Birds next home game is Friday, July 16th, against the Fairfax Cardinals for a 7:30 PM start at Storm/Red Bird Stadium.