"Merchants Conclude Regular Season"

The East Side Merchants (10-21, 6-14) lost their fourth straight contest and concluded the 2008 regular season in the St. Paul League on Saturday afternoon at the Koch Diamond in St. Paul, Minnesota. Brian Olson (1-4) threw outstanding baseball through five innings allowing only a single to leadoff hitter Kirk Baglien in the top half of the 1st inning. Olson continued cruising until two outs in the 6th when Baglien singled again followed by back to back triples from 2nd Basemen Charles Bruchu and rightfielder Matt Olson. Roy Larson then doubled home Olson and Drew Cremisino made it a 4-2 ball game with a single to right to cap the Commanding Edge rally. At the plate the Merchants were led by newly signed Chris Gulsvig, who the Merchants hope to have as their everyday 1st Basemen in 2009, who collected his first career Merchant hit and run in the contest. While Brian Olson went 2-3 with a run-batted in and Matty Grill, the Merchants centerfield, went 2-2 with two singles and a run driven in. With the conclusion of the '08 regular season, East Side now enters the St. Paul League double-loss elimination Tournament seeded 7th and set to take on #2 seed, the Rosetown A's on Tuesday July 29th at Dunning Stadium with the first pitch slated to be thrown at 6:00.

Date: July 26, 2008     Time: 6:00pm      Venue: St. Thomas    Game #: 31