Simley Downs St. Croix Lutheran For Second Straight Win

After struggling for most of the season, Simley High’s baseball team is suddenly on a roll.

Simley (2-10 overall) beat Classic Suburban Conference rival Henry Sibley Thursday 10-8 for its first win of the season. The Spartans followed up that game with a 10-3 nonconference win Friday afternoon in West St. Paul over the St. Croix Lutheran Crusaders (5-4).

In both wins the Spartans benefitted from of timely hitting, good defense and, perhaps most importantly, good pitching.

Simley’s pitching streak actually extends back three games, when the Spartans played well, and pitched well, in a 2-0 loss to Richfield on Monday, May 2.

“We’re starting to gel as a young team,” said Simley head coach Stanley Winnie. “We got good pitching yesterday by sophomore Brody Schintz and today by sophomore Logan Busch. He pitched a complete game with three earned runs. He struck out 10 and walked one."

“We lost 2-0 to Richfield with freshman pitcher Anthony Poole,” Winnie added. “So that’s three young pitchers who threw good games this week.”

Schintz allowed 10 hits over the course of Friday's game. But with the exception of the fourth inning, he never let the Crusaders string anything together. The Simley defense also played well behind him.

Simley opened with a flourish Friday, knocking in five runs in the top of the first inning. The Spartans then made it an 8-0 game with three more runs in the third.

Senior rightfielder Nate Briguet went 2-for-4 with a double and two runs batted in to lead the Simley offense. Schintz was 2-for-4 and sophomore Zack Rivera was 2-for-3 with a double and a RBI.

Simley’s newfound baseball prowess will be put to the test Monday in a game at North St. Paul (6-4), starting at 7pm.

St. Croix Lutheran plays DeLaSalle Tuesday at 4:30pm.