Mustangs gallop to Team of the Week honors

Coach Mark Downey's Mounds View baseball squad is Vype's Team of the Week after the Mustangs opened the month of May atop the Suburban East Conference with a perfect 9-0 record. "We've got some great kids on this team," Downey said. "They work hard and they compete hard." Despite losing eight seniors to graduation over the past off-season, the Mustangs charged from the gate with an unblemished April with the help of some heavy hitting complimented by shutdown pitching. "There was lots of turnover," Downey said. "We knew we had a lot of guys competing for spots and I think that competition helped us be ready for when the season started." Mounds View claimed victories over a pair of pre-season SEC favorites in the opening month with wins at Cretin-Derham Hall, 6-2 on April 21, and at home against Stillwater, 7-6 on May 1. Junior Brandon Hershey leads the Mustangs with a .560 batting average, two home runs, 14 runs batted in and a .979 fielding percentage in seven games played. Fellow infielder Ross Laduke, a senior, sports a .514 batting average, 10 RBI and a team-high four stolen bases. Outfielder/pitcher David Freed, a classmate of Hershey's, is third on the team with a .476 batting average and has also won two of his three starts off the mound with a 1.658 earned run average and a team-high 16 strikeouts in 12.2 innings pitched. Senior hurler Cam Dickison has a 1.556 ERA in four appearances and one start. Mounds View opened the week with a trip to Hastings on May 5, after out-lasting the Raiders 11-10 on April 14. Weather permitting, the Mustangs are scheduled to play four games this week, hosting Woodbury and Park in back-to-back home contests on May 6-7 before traveling to Roseville and Stillwater, May 8 and 9, respectively. "In the big picture, we probably aren't going to win them all," Downey said. "But it is good to see how the kids have hung in there and found ways to win." Vype's Team of the Week will be announced every Monday. To submit a nomination, email tom.carothers@hsstm.com.