Weekend Preview - Fri 5/8 @ Isanti 7:30 & Home Opener Sat 5/9 vs Blaine

The St. Croix River Bandits (0-1) have two more non-conference games the weekend and hopefully they will bring out their sticks. Friday the Bandits will face the Isanti Redbirds (1-0) who were 28-10 last season and finished 4th in the MN state tournament last season. The Redbirds defeated the Bandits in an odd game early last year that saw the Bandits jump out to a 4-2 lead through 4 1/2 innings. The Redbirds, however, were able to score 12 more runs in the next 2 innings, thomping the Bandits 14-4 in 6innings.

The Redbirds are led by stud catcher Kyle Johnson, who completed his senior season with the Concordia-Moorhead Cobbers, a DII conference. Johnson finished his career making the All-MIAC three times, including 2nd team all region last season, and probably 1st team all region this season as he hit .404 and 16HR with 36RBI in only 33 games. Last season Johnson hit a 941' home run off of starting pitcher Jim Rochford, who said in response, "Hey, I struck him out the first time....". Rochford is expected to start on the mound again for the Bandits with Adam Lewis ready to pitch the back 5. The Bandits are 1-2 lifetime versus the Redbirds, with that coming back in 2007 when Jay Gagner defeated them 2-1.
***Breaking News*** On 5/5/09 Kyle Johnson signed a pro contract with the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks, an independant pro team that plays in the Northern League. This means that the Redbirds will be without their clean-up hitter this season, not that the Bandits are out of the woods just yet. The Redbirds still have BJ Samuelson and Tyler Schaff who combined hit 9HR and 58 RBI laste season.


***HOME OPENER***
The Bandits begin their promotional and home season on Saturday vs. the Blaine Fusion (3-0), a Class B MN team. The Bandits will be giving away free mini-poster schedules to all fans in attendance thanks to the Copy Shop in St. Croix Falls. Blaine finished the season 26-12 in 2008, just missing the playoffs. They are led by former Concordia-St. Paul player Tony Boxwell, who hit .458 with 5 HR and 53RBI last season (at least he is only hitting .583 this season). Blaine also sports 3 pitchers that have an ERA under 2.00 and a team batting average of .350. The Bandits will counter with their ace, former Golden Gopher, Jay Gagner. Gagner was only 1-3 last season, but that was due solely to lack of run support as his ERA was 0.95 and had 64 strikeouts in 47 innings pitched.