The Prior Lake Lakers hosted the Lakeville North Panthers in an early season South Suburban Conference tilt at a packed and raucous Veterans Field of Memorial Park in Prior Lake on Friday April 15, a game that was rescheduled from Monday. The game would be the third in three days to kick off 2016 for Prior Lake, winning 12-1 at Apple Valley Wednesday behind starting pitcher Nick Hanson who struck out 10 in five innings, and the Thursday 6-1 win over Rosemount with Jimmy Larson hurling five, striking out nine and allowing one run.
The teams breezed through five innings with no score until the visitors posted a run in the top of the sixth. Both teams stranded runners having opportunities to break open the game late with runners aboard. The Lakers’ Lucas Pumper relieved starter Lawson Zenner on the mound after the sixth. Zenner allowed one run in six innings and blanked North until the sixth. The host Lakers deadlocked the game in the 7th at one; where the score would remain until the bottom of the 11th inning. Junior shortstop Jacob Hitz laced a lead-off double to left and following an unsuccessful sacrifice bunt, North intentionally walked the next two Prior Lake batters to load the bases with one out. In a game that had many strong plays in the field by both teams, Prior Lake knocked a ball hard to short which forced the second out at home with an errant throw from the catcher skipping low down the right field line past first, awakening the PL fans with a hard fought 2-1 victory and Laker swarm celebrating the key early season win. Pumper bagged the win pitching five scoreless, and chipping in at the plate batting three for four with a walk and RBI. Nick Raddatz was two for four for PL with a walk, and scoring both Laker runs.
The win pushes the Lakers to 3-0 on the young season tied atop the SSC with Eastview and Burnsville. The Lakers have posted 20 runs in three games while allowing a miserly three runs in 24 innings played. PL jumps back in the SSC grind next week hosting Lakeville South on Monday 4/18 at 4:30PM, followed by trips to Eagan on Wednesday 4/20 (4:30PM), and Burnsville on Thursday 4/21 (4:30PM) for SSC action.
Box Score: http://www.mnbaseballhub.com/game/show/12873001
Minnesota Baseball Hub Article: http://www.mnbaseballhub.com/news_article/show/635080?referrer_id=477702
2016 PL Laker Varsity Schedule: http://assets.ngin.com/attachments/document/0051/2738/2016_PLHS_Varsity_Schedule.pdf