NORTH EAST, Pa. – Lakeland baseball had two distinctly different games, one with a little offense and one with a lot of offense, but the Lakers were unable to get a win as Mercyhurst North East swept the doubleheader by the score 6-2 and 15-14 Monday afternoon.
With the pair of losses, the Lakers fall to 5-12 overall and 2-4 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference play.
North East 6 – Lakeland 2
Offense was lacking in the first game for Lakeland as North East pulled out a 6-2 victory to open the doubleheader.
Matt Detering hit a double and brought in one of the two runs while Walker Marlowe had the other RBI for the Lakers.
David Kalinowski pitched six innings and only gave up three earned runs in the loss.
North East struck first with three runs in the third but Lakeland fought back in the fourth. Austin Mora started the fourth with a single and then scored on an RBI double by Detering to get Lakeland with 3-1.
The Lakers got even closer in the fifth when Jacob Nagy started the inning with a single and then scored on an RBI ground out by Marlowe to get within 3-2. North East padded its lead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth to earn the four-run victory.
North East 15 – Lakeland 14
Lakeland nearly had enough offense to recover from giving up a 12-run inning but the Lakers fell just short in a 15-14 loss to North East to suffer a sweep.
Mora went 3-for-4 with a double and two singles and brought in three runs. Seth France also brought in three runs with a pair of singles. Garrett Oliver pitched a few innings and belted a single and a double while knocking in two runs. Luis Padron, Marlowe, Gino Bertolone and Alex Newsome each had an RBI in the loss.
North East could not have asked for a better start after scoring 12 runs in the opening inning. Lakeland did chip away in the second inning. Nagy and Mora singled to begin the inning and France brought both in with a single to left to get within 12-2. Newsome brought in the third run with a double to center and then Padron capped the scoring in the inning with a single to left to get within 12-4.
The Lakers added one more in the third inning as Mora started it with a one-out single and then Bertolone singled to center to bring in Mora to get within 12-5. North East scored two in the bottom of the third for a 14-5 lead.
Lakeland kept going on offense as France started the fourth with a single and then scored on an RBI ground out by Marlowe to get within 14-6. North East added one run in the bottom of the fourth to earn a 15-6 lead.
North East stopped scoring after 15 runs and Lakeland scored eight consecutive runs to nearly come all the way back. It started in the fifth when Oliver singled to begin the inning and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Mora to get within 15-7.
The scoring continued in the sixth when Mora brought in a pair with a double to center to make the score 15-9. France was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded for the 10th run. Bertolone and Matt DiDonato each scored on a North East error to get within 15-12.
In the seventh inning, Marlowe started it off with a single and Detering followed with a double. Both scored on a double by Oliver to center to get within 15-14 with no outs. Unfortunately, that would be the final runs scored by the Lakers.
Lakeland will have one more game in Pennsylvania when it travels to face Gannon University on Tuesday, April 10 at 3 p.m.
For more information about Lakeland athletics, visit www.athletics.lakelandcc.edu.
About Lakeland Community College
Founded in 1967, Lakeland Community College was the first college in Ohio created by a vote of the people. True to our mission, Lakeland provides quality learning opportunities to meet the social and economic needs of the community.
Offering day, evening, weekend and online classes, the college serves more than 10,800 credit and 2,800 noncredit students (2016). For more information about the College, visit www.lakelandcc.edu.
