Facing a doubleheader against Bloomington Jefferson May 4, Park lost the first game 3-2 and then rallied to win the second game 4-0. After the games, head coach Bryan Kelly said he felt the team could have won both games of the doubleheader.

“We fell a little bit short today,” Kelly said. “Both wins would be really nice, but we did play a good baseball game.”

Sophomore Malik Martin said the team turned up the energy from the first game to the second game.

“We were pretty slow in the first game, not a lot of energy,” Martin said. “Coach picked us up in the second game and we were active. The whole second game we had a lot of energy and really wanted to win and we did that.”

Senior Andruw Vela said Park didn’t execute the game plan and the team was not locked in.

“Mentally, we weren’t there until the second game, but we’re talking about how we need to start get it going earlier, because the season is getting tougher and it’s going to be crucial,” Vela said. “Even though we had seven hits, a couple of guys didn’t deliver, but it’s baseball and it’s not their fault. You don’t expect everyone to have a perfect game.”

Kelly said there are numerous things the team needs to do to prepare for bigger games in the future.

 “We worked on base running, pitchers doing a good job of holding runners close to the bases and not letting them get big jumps,” Kelly said. “Some guys are struggling on this, but I don’t blame them, we all have to improve on stuff, we just need to make less mistakes.”

Martin said he expects Park to continue to thrive throughout the season and into the playoffs.

“(I’m) hoping to keep a winning record going into the playoffs,” Martin said. We have to keep the energy up as a really good team. (We need) good offense, good defense. We just got to keep the momentum going with wins and just keep everything going good.”

Park’s next baseball game is against Benilde-St Margaret’s at 6 p.m. on May 8 at Dakota Park.