In the past during fair week the Northwood-Kensett baseball has suffered on the field because of all of the activities the players are involved with during the fair.

It happened again in a 16-2 loss to St. Ansgar at home Wednesday.

The Saints scored four runs in the first and added two in the second to lead 6-0 out of the gate.

The Vikings (2-18 overall, 0-13 Cornbowl) struck in the bottom of the second when Michael Steif hit a home run to center field. Northwood-Kensett added a run in the fifth, but it couldn’t hold the St. Ansgar offense.

“It’s fair week,” Vikings head coach Mike Reindl said. “Traditionally fair week it seems like we struggle on this Wednesday night because a lot of the kids are doing a lot of different things. It doesn’t seem like we come to the game focused.”

The Saints had 12 hits in the game and sent 12 batters to the box in the fifth inning to cruise to the win.

It was a disheartening loss after the Vikings played conference leader Sheffield-Chapin-Meservey-Thorton tough but fell in the seventh inning Monday.

“We’ve been playing much better baseball,” Reindl said. “We just can’t seem to get over that hump.”

Northwood-Kensett has one final conference game next Wednesday against Riceville before playing Newman Catholic in the district playoffs.

St. Ansgar 16, Northwood-Kensett 2, 5 innings

St. Ansgar – 420 37x x – 16 12 0

Northwood-Kensett – 010 01x x – 2 7 1

LP – Jake Weisert 3 IP, 6 R, 6 ER, 6 H, 3 K, 2 BB