Park baseball held their third annual “Strike Out ALS” night during their game vs. New Prague May 12. Families that attended the game were able to help fundraise for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis research by buying T-shirts, along with donating money to the cause. Although Park ended up taking a 6-0 loss, Park found success as they had set a goal to raise $800 and ended up raising $2,170. 

Senior Rocco Serrano said “Strike Out ALS” night is about much more than the game on the field.

“We love the Giovannellis, we love the ALS community,” Serrano said. “It means a lot and it’s just bigger than baseball.” 

Junior Josh Middleton said “Strike Out ALS” night is special because it brings together the Park community.

“We come together as a family, alumni and current players,” Middleton said. “It’s just a special night for SLP as a whole.”

Assistant coach Danny Bissonnette said Park got off to a slow start, which set them back against a skilled team like New Prague.

“We put ourselves in a hole right away with some lackluster efforts in the field,” Bissonnette said. “You can’t put yourself in a hole and expect to beat one of the better teams in our conference and in the state.” 

According to Serrano, nerves and careless mistakes were ultimately the downfall of Park in their loss.

“We were way too antsy that game,” Serrano said. “We’re thinking way too quick, we gotta slow down. If you take a look at the scoreboard, we’re not going to win with seven errors.”

Bissonnette said the team needs to practice more fielding in order to win future games as they have been struggling recently.

“(We need to) raise the bar a little bit in practice and games,” Bissonnette said. “On the field is really where we have been struggling. We’ve been doing good hitting, we just need to be a little bit more aggressive.”

Serrano said the team needs to ramp up their focus with playoffs right around the corner.

“The game wasn’t good, but players had each other’s backs,” Serrano said. “We got playoffs coming, we’ll lock it in.”

Baseball’s next game will be vs. Chaska at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 16 at Dakota Park.