The Maple Lake Lakers split in two games on last weekend’s Ottertail County road trip, edging the Fergus Falls Hurricanes 2-0 and dropping a 10-run decision 13-3 to Vergas. Both opponents compete in the Countryside League. On Wednesday, June 17, the Lakers lost a nail-biter 3-1 to the D-C Saints in an important Central Division contest. The Lakers go into this week with a record of 6 wins and 8 losses facing a heavy schedule of home games: Wednesday, June 24, against Albertville at 7:30 p.m., Delano on Friday, June 26, at 7:30, and then a return match -up with D-C on Sunday, June 28, at 2 p.m. Vergas 13, Lakers 3 (10-run rule loss) There isn’t much to report about this game Saturday, June 20. The Loons roughed up two Laker pitchers for 14 hits and 13 runs, 10 earned, with Sam Marsnik taking the loss. Chad Raiche’s double was the only extra-base hit for Maple Lake. Team members spent the night at Long Lake Resort, owned by Nate Johnson’s family. LAKERS AB R H RBI Graham Brown 3 0 1 0 Nate Johnson 3 1 1 0 Chad Raiche 4 1 1 0 Bert Marsnik 3 0 0 0 Darin Decker 4 0 1 2 Sam Marsnik 4 0 2 0 Cody Decker 3 0 0 0 Marcus Zahn 3 0 0 0 Mike Starke 2 1 1 0 Riley Decker 0 0 0 0 TOTALS 29 3 7 2 Lakers 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 3R, 7H Vergas 0 2 3 2 1 2 3 13R, 14 H Lakers: Sam Marsnik (L), Chad Raiche (5) Marsnik IP 4 H 7 R 7 ER 7 SO 3 BB 3 HP 2 Raiche IP 2 1/3 H 7 R 6 ER 3 SO 3 BB 2 Lakers 2, Fergus Falls 0 This was a game marked by drama, but the biggest – and what could have been a serious – incident for the Lakers, happened off the field on the way to Fergus Falls. On Interstate 94 near the Garfield exit, a vehicle driven by Sam Marsnik, with Bert Marsnik, Graham Brown, Jeremy Schmidt and Mike Starke as passengers, heated up and smoke poured from the rear end. Sam pulled safely off to the side of the road, and the players got across the ditch, from where they saw the car burst into flames. Arriving quickly on the scene, the Garfield Fire Department put out the fire and prevented an explosion. Ask Brown to see his cell phone videos of the fire. No one was hurt, but there was damage to uniforms and gear stowed in the trunk. All the players arrived in time for the Friday night, June 19, game. For nine innings Jeremy Schmidt and Minnesota State University-Mankato ace Casey Kowalski locked horns in a masterful pitching duel. But when it was over, Schmidt had won the battle, limiting the Hurricanes to six hits and one walk while striking out 11. Schmidt kept Fergus off stride throughout the game with good location and by varying speeds with good breaking stuff. Fergus, third in last year’s Class C State Amateur Tournament, threatened in the second inning with two straight hits and again in the fourth with a walk and a hit but failed to score. The most intense on-field drama came in the ninth. With the Lakers clinging to their narrow lead, the first Hurricane reached base on a dropped pop fly in the infield. The next batter hit a smash to the base of the left field fence. The double put runners on second and third with no outs. After a strikeout, the next Fergus batter hit a grounder to short. Amazingly the runner on second broke to third, forcing the runner already there to run home, only to be thrown out by shortstop Marcus Zahn. With a fly out to first base, the game was over. Cody Decker scored the first Laker run in the third inning. He walked, took second on Riley Decker’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Mike Starke’s base hit to right field, Starke’s first Laker RBI. The Lakers scored their other run in the seventh. With two out, Cody Decker singled to the right side, got to second on a passed ball and came home on Zahn’s long single. The Lakers threatened again in the eighth. With one out, Nate Johnson reached on a hit and advanced on a hit Chad Raiche powered off the third baseman’s glove, before a doubleplay ended the rally. LAKERS AB R H RBI Graham Brown 4 0 1 0 Nate Johnson 4 0 1 0 Chad Raiche 4 0 1 0 Bert Marsnik 4 0 1 0 Darin Decker 4 0 0 0 Sam Marsnik 4 0 0 0 Cody Decker 2 2 2 0 Riley Decker 1 0 0 0 Marcus Zahn 2 0 1 1 Mike Starke 3 0 1 1 Jeremy Schmidt 0 0 0 0 TOTALS 32 2 8 2 Lakers 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 2R, 8H, 1E Fergus 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0R, 6H, 0E Lakers: Jeremy Schmidt (W) and Cody Decker Fergus: Casey Kowalski (L) and Eric Rohlfs Schmidt IP 9 H 6 R 0 SO 11 BB 1 D-C Saints 3, Lakers 1 Ben Jungers pitched well enough to win, but control problems in the sixth and seventh innings and failure of the Lakers to hit in the clutch sent the Lakers to defeat at Saints Field in Dassel on Wednesday, June 17. A Laker draftee for last year’s state tournament, Eric Hanson picked up the win with veteran ace Dan Birkholz baffling the Lakers in the ninth for a save. The Lakers scored first with a run in the second inning. Bert Marsnik took first on an infield error and advanced on Graham Brown’s single. Both runners moved up on Riley Decker’s sacrifice bunt. Doing his job, Cody Decker hit a ground ball to the right side to drive in Bert Marsnik on the out. A tap back to the pitcher ended the inning. That was the end of the Laker scoring. Two hits in the eighth failed to produce a run. The Saints tied it up in the sixth with two outs when Cole Flick and Phil Niemala walked before Flick scored on Matt Bergstrom’s hit. The seventh was a back-breaker for the Lakers. Hanson was hit by a pitch and went to second on a sacrifice bunt and third on Bryce Berggren’s hit. At that point pinch hitter Drew Carlson knocked in both runners with the second Saints’ hit of the inning. With this loss, the Lakers dropped to 1-2 in the all-important Central Division seeding battle.
LAKERS AB R H RBI Tim Queck 4 0 1 0 Nate Johnson 4 0 2 0 Chad Raiche 3 0 2 0 Darin Decker 4 0 1 0 Bert Marsnik 2 1 1 0 Graham Brown 4 0 1 0 Riley Decker 1 0 0 0 Sam Marsnik 1 0 0 0 Cody Decker 4 0 1 1 Marcus Zahn 3 0 0 0 Ben Jungers 0 0 0 0 TOTALS 30 1 9 1 Lakers: Ben Jungers (L) and Cody Decker Saints: Eric Hanson (W), Dan Birkholz (9,Sv), and Matt Bergstrom Jungers IP 8 H 6 R 3 ER 3 SO 6 BB 2 HP 1
