St. Louis Park Rolls in Class A Baseball Tournament Opener

It was a near-perfect start for St. Louis Park in Pirates in the opening round of the 2011 MBA Class A Baseball Tournament.

St. Louis Park ace Gabe Eikum pitched a complete game two-hitter and No. 2 hitter Joe Pierce powered a three-run home run to lead Park to a 6-1 win over the River Pirates Friday evening in the tournament at Haddox Field in Bloomington.

“Gabe Eikum, our pitcher, was pretty solid,” said first-year manager Chris Duda. “He’s our ace and we had to throw him in game one and see what happened. We have to win game one and go from there. He didn’t give up many hits. He was pretty dominate. But he’s our ace and that’s what we expect from him.”

Making their 17th overall and seventh straight appearance in the amateur tournament, the St. Louis Park team was in control the entire game Friday.

“We got out early on them in the first couple innings,” said Duda. Everyone hit the ball. We scored in probably six or seven of the nine innings and that’s how you play winning ball.”

Park won state championships in 2002 and 2008 and has five runner-up finishes. Many of the players on those 2002 and 2008 title teams are still on the squad. This year they’re hoping to collect more state hardware this season, said Duda.

Pierce’s three-run homer in the third inning gave Park a 4-1 lead and a fairly comfortable margin on an evening where Eikum was throwing darts. Eikum set the River Pirates down 1-2-3 in six of nine innings and allowed only one double and one single in the contest.

Dave Lindstrom made it a 5-1 game with an RBI double in the fifth and Pat Fix made it 6-1 in the sixth, also socking a run-scoring double.

Park (30-9) will play Skyline League Champions Stockmen’s Irish (27-8) in a second round game starting at 4 p.m. Saturday at Haddox Field.