The Lakeland baseball team traveled to Crusher's Stadium on Friday to play a "home" doubleheader against the Bryant & Stratton Bobcats. Unfortunately, the Lakers dropped a hard-fought 1-0 game in the opener that went 11 innings. Lakeland would then drop game two 6-0 and their record falls to 9-14 (6-7). Game one was the one that got away from the Lakers. They had several scoring opportunities before the extra innings but could not cash in. On two separate occasions, they had runners on 3rd with less than two outs, but were unable to get the timely hit. Both teams played very good defense and received excellent pitching. Lakeland's Adam Letson started and took a no-decision after pitching 8 shutout innings allowing 6 hits while striking out 6 batters. Seena Amani relieved and took the loss as he pitched 3 innings and allowed 2 hits and 1 earned run while striking out 4 batters. The Lakers recorded 8 hits in the game. Leading the way for the Lakers were Ben Sterritt and Malakai Roberts as they got two hits apiece in the opener. Seth Freeman, Cody Hejduk, Brandon Schreffler, and Jason Shenkel each picked up a hit in the defeat.
The Lakers dropped behind early in game two and were never able to get their offense going. Abe Bayus took the loss as he started and allowed 5 hits, 4 runs (3 earned), in 4.2 innings of work. Bayus also walked 7 and struck out 5 batters. Tanner Low relieved Bayus and allowed 2 earned runs on 2 hits in 2.1 innings of work. Offensively, the Lakers were unable to get on track and recorded 3 hits. Tyronne Barbosa went 2-3 while Cody Hejduk went 1-1 in the loss.
Krause's Comments: "Th first game was a very well-played game. I was very proud of our team and the way they competed. We had our chances, but just couldn't cash it in. We weren't able to get on track offensively in game two, but we really played some pretty good baseball today. Our team stuck with it and put forth a good effort. We'll regroup and get back at it tomorrow."
Next Up: The Lakers travel to Solon Community Center on Saturday to take on the same Bobcats to finish out the season series. The game is scheduled to begin at 1:00 pm.