The Lakers baseball team traveled to Owens Community College and split with the Express on Friday. The Lakers record now stands at 6-8 (3-3). Game 1 was an epic 14 inning affair that the Lakers won 2-1. Adam Letson started on the mound and tossed 6 shutout innings allowing 7 hits while striking out 5 batters. Lakeland took the lead in the 4th inning as they pushed across a run for a 1-0 edge. Malakai Roberts got things started with a single. Kyle Zaluski sac bunted him to second base and then Ben Sterrit stepped to the plate and ripped an RBI single. Roberts toed the rubber for the next 4 frames and allowed a run while striking out 4 batters. Tanner Low would pitch the next 3 scoreless innings and pick up the victory. Lakeland would take the lead in the top of the 14th inning. Zaluski singled and stole second base. RJ Petties then hit a ball to the left of the Owens second baseman. As he went for the ball, it skipped off his glove. Zaluski never broke stride and raced all the way home scoring on a bang-bang play at the plate. Ricky McLeod earned the save pitching a clean 14th inning to close it out.
Malakai Roberts and Kyle Zaluski each picked up two hits in game 1.
The Lakers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning in game 2. Kyle Zaluski got things going by reaching base on an error. Tyronne Barbosa followed with a single and then Ben Sterrit knocked Zaluski in with an RBI single. Owens answered the call though scoring 4 runs of their own in the home half of the inning. The Lakers would battle back though cutting the lead to 4-3 in the top of the 2nd inning. Jason Shenkel started things off with a walk. After a Kris Scandy fielder's choice, RJ Petties walked, and then Philip Putnam had an infield single to load the bases. Malakai Roberts delivered a 2-RBI single to get the Lakers right back in the game. Unfortunately for the Lakers, they would not muster any more offense on the day and the Express would add a few runs to pull away for the win. Lenny Feckner took the loss as he allowed 5 runs (4 earned) in 3 innings of work. Alex Ehinger also pitched 3 innings allowing 3 runs (1 earned) in the defeat.
Krause's Comments: "I was really pleased with how we played today. The games were played under some difficult conditions as it was very windy and extremely cold - it was snowing while we warmed up. Despite that, both teams played really good defense. Game 1 was a really well-played game. Our pitchers did were very good throughout. In game 2, we battled. We got down early allowing the 4 spot in the first, but fought back. We had some chances in this game, we just couldn't get the key hit when we needed it. Overall though, a really good job in some tough conditions."
Next Up: The Lakers are scheduled to travel to Mount Union on Tuesday in a 1:00 pm non-league doubleheader.