The St. Paul Saints concluded their exhibition season with a 5-1 win over the Lincoln Saltdogs on Tuesday afternoon at CHS Field. The game went 12 innings to allow both teams to get everybody into the game after Monday’s game was canceled due to rain.

It was kids day at CHS Field, where tickets for the game were only available to students at area schools. By the time the ninth inning came around most students had boarded their buses to return to their schools, leaving a fairly empty stadium for the final few innings.

The few people who were left got to see some fireworks in the bottom of the eighth inning when Noah Perio Jr., who spent the last few years with the Sioux City Explorers, hit a solo home run to right field to break a 1-1 tie.

The Saints were leading 2-1 after the top of the ninth, but they continued to play, and in the bottom of the inning Josh Allen led off with a triple to center field that set up Richard Prigatano to hit a two-run home run that barely stayed fair down the left-field line.

The Saints tacked on another run in the bottom of the 10th inning to extend the lead to 5-1. They added an insurance run in the 11th when Brady Shoemaker doubled to left field to score Jayce Boyd.

The Saints used a plethora of pitchers to hold the Saltdogs to just one run, which came in the fourth thanks to two singles and a wild pitch from Tom Wilhelmsen, a former major league pitcher who the Saints signed a few weeks ago.

Wilhelmsen relieved Jeff Malm, who pitched the first three innings without allowing a hit.

The Saints will open the regular season Friday night against the Gary Southshore Railcats. This will be the third straight season they have opened against the Railcats, but the first time it will be on the road. The home opener for the Saints will be Monday when they host the newly-formed Chicago Dogs at 3:05 p.m.

Roster moves coming

The Saints will have some tough decisions to make over the next few days, as they need to trim their roster down to 23 players prior to their season opener against Gary on Friday night. Manager George Tsamis will have to balance the league roster rules, which classify players based on experience and limits how many players can have each classification.

They made the first step on Monday night when they released pitcher John Straka.

Radio broadcaster picks up first career win as manager

The Saints played their annual exhibition game against a town ball team on Saturday in Miesville, where they defeated an All-Star team 12-1. Tsamis wasn’t at the game because he was attending his daughter’s graduation from college, so radio broadcaster Sean Aaronson filled in for Tsamis.

The Saints got a good performance from pitcher Jake Esch, going four innings with two hits and three strikeouts. Esch will most likely be the opening-day starter Friday for the Saints.

Redhawks stranded in South Dakota

The Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks had an interesting Monday night, as their bus broke down about 110 miles north of Sioux Falls, according to radio broadcaster Jack Michaels. The team was on their way down to Wichita to finish their exhibition season.

After waiting four hours, the team was able to get their bus repaired and back on the road.

Saints to host block party Thursday

The Saints will be hosting their annual block party/world’s largest game of catch Thursday from 11:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Fans will be able to meet the team and collect autographs, as well as witness the naming of this year’s ball pig.

The event will be held in Mears Park.