On Tuesday night the 12AAA Rosemount Irish traveled to Eagan to take on the Wildcats in a Metro Baseball League game at Goat Hill Park. The Irish came into the game undefeated in league play looking for their fourth win in five games. Eagan was hovering around .500 and looking to build on a win over Eastview in their previous outing.

Both teams coming off a holiday break were a little sluggish only getting a handful of hits a piece and not a lot of great contact offensively. Despite neither team bringing their "AAA" game, it wasn't short on drama and excitement.

The Irish jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning when Jake Peterson singled in two runs and scored the third run. 

After falling behind 4-0, Eagan fought back scoring five runs in the final two frames to send the game to extra innings. The Wildcats had the score tied 5-5 with no one out and a man on third base before an Eagan hitter lofted a fly ball to shallow center field. Kailer Wenzel fielded it cleanly and fired a bullet home to cut down the Wildcat runner for a timely double play. Easton Richter, who had struggled in relief until that point struck out the final batter to send the game into extra time.

The Irish scratched out a run in the visitor's half of the seventh when righty Sam Klatt reached on a walk and scored on an Eagan wild pitch to give Rosemount a 6-5 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.

The athletic Richter pulled himself up by his stirrups and found his groove and got the win sitting down the Wildcats in order to lift the Irish to a 6-5 win. It was a great battle between league and school district rivals.

Eight of the 12 players for Rosemount played PeeWees for the Irish last Winter. In an era where more players specialize in one sport at earlier and earlier ages, it was refreshing to hear about a baseball team that has all multi-sport athletes on the team (8 hockey, 2 basketball and 2 wrestling). These Rosemount boys have won a state championship in each of the last two seasons and look poised to make another run this year, too.

YHH caught up with three of the hockey players following the game and got some great insight on playing several sports. Some were refreshing and some were a harsh reality of "keeping up." When asked what his favorite sport is, star pitcher/shortstop Easton Richter said, "depends what time of year it is...if it's Winter - hockey, if it's Summer - baseball, if it's Fall - football." Zach Schweitzer and Jake Peterson both agreed that, "it is fun jumping around from sport to sport."

One of the three did sheepishly admitted, "that sometimes it can be a grind" trying to keep up "running from sport to sport." With the demands that each sport puts on players, that grind is what ultimately drives kids to play fewer sports. Hopefully players and parents will see the many merits of playing multi-sports like rest, using different muscles and building athleticism will outweigh the merits of playing just one.