Lions collect three wins

(Above) Clear Lake’s Mitchell Raber hustles back to first base during the Hampton-Dumont game.  The Lions topped the Bulldogs, 4-3.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

by Marianne Gasaway

Webster City 5, CL 2

Webster City got things moving in the first inning with two runs and went on to earn a 5-2 victory over the Lions Monday, June 24.

“Over the years I have come to expect that strange things will happen when we travel to Webster City, and this was definitely the case tonight,” said Coach Seth Thompson.  “The umpires were very generous in giving us a lot of character building opportunities, but to the credit of Webster City, they played better than us tonight and deserved to win.”

The Lynx started the bottom of the first with two singles, followed by an error which allowed a run to score.  Then, with two outs a walk brought in a second run.

The Lions got on the board in the top of the third after Mac Adams reached base on a single and scored on an Erik McHenry drive to center field.  They evened the score in the top of the fourth after Chase Stuver led off with a single, advanced on a pop fly single by Eric Ritter, and scored on a wild pitch.

Webster City quickly regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth, 3-2.

An inning later, the Lynx piled on two more runs.  With two outs, a balk by pitcher Aaron Formanek advanced runners to second and third.  An error on a ground ball sent two runs home.

Dylan Steen led things off on the pitcher’s mound for the Lynx. He held the Lions to two runs on five hits, striking out 15 and walking one in six and one-third innings of work.

Formanek went four and two-thirds inning for the Lions, allowing five runs on six hits and striking out nine.  Adams threw one and one-third innings out of the bullpen.

McHenry swung a hot bat with three hits in four trips to the plate. He also had two of Clear Lake’s six stolen bases.

“I thought Andrew pitched well against a good offensive team, they just got a few poorly hit balls in key spots that fell for hits and that is just how things go sometimes,” said Coach Thompson.  “Offensively, we just didn’t have very good approaches, and had way too many strikeouts that kept us from putting enough pressure on their defense.”

CL 4, H-D 3

Mac Adams held the Hampton Bulldogs to four hits, helping the Lions to a 4-3 North Central Conference win Wednesday, June 26.

“This was a really well-played game by both sides.  Luckily for us even though we left a ton of runners on base we managed to scrape across enough runs to get a big conference win,” said Coach Thompson.

The Lions struck early, as Erik McHenry led off with a single and scored on a two-out single by AJ Stevenson in the bottom of the first inning.  They added another run in the third, thanks again to Stevenson.  He singled in Chase Stuver, who opened the inning with a hard hit ball to left field.  With two outs Andrew Formanek doubled to score Stevenson and push the lead to 3-0 after three.

A walk and back-to-back singles helped the Bulldogs scratch their way back into the game in the fourth inning.  They scored two runs to cut the Lions’ lead to 3-2.

A wild pitch thrown by H-D’s Lukas Smith let Formanek, who reached base on a fielder’s choice, score in the bottom of the fifth for a 4-2 lead.

With two out in the top of the sixth the Bulldogs were trying to rally.  Mac Adams issued two walks with one out to give Hampton some hope.  A pop out had runners at first and second with two outs, but a single scored a run. The threat was ended on a ground out, 4-3.  The Bulldogs managed a two-out single in the top of the seventh, but Adams recorded a strikeout to finish with the win.

Stevenson led the team at the plate with two hits in four at-bats.

Adams allowed four hits and three runs over seven innings, striking out six.

“Mac wasn’t as sharp as he can be, but he was still really good and anytime you can pitch a complete game win in the world of pitch count you have done your job as a pitcher,” added Coach Thompson.

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The Lions fell behind early and couldn’t come back in an 11-4 loss to Clarion-Goldfield/Dows on Friday, June 28.

“This was a really disappointing loss, but on this particular night Clarion played really well and probably better than I have ever seen a Clarion team play since I have coached at Clear Lake,” said Coach Seth Thompson.  “They made some great plays on defense, their pitchers battled all night, and every time they put the ball in play it seemed like it was never at our defense.”

The Lions had runners on base in every inning, but just couldn’t get the hits needed in those key spots to keep up with the Cowboys offensively.

The Cowboys broke out fast with three runs in the first inning.  They added one more in the second and three in the third for a 7-3 lead.

The Lions scored twice in the second inning and added single runs in the third and fourth to pull within two, 7-5.

In the second, Andrew Formanek singled to start the inning, advanced to second on a passed ball, moved to third on a balk and scored on a wild pitch. Mitchell Raber scored on a passed ball for Clear Lake’s other run in the inning.

In the third, Formanek scored after reaching base on a fielder’s choice, stealing second and scoring on a single by Raber.

Clear Lake’s final run was scored in the top of the fourth when Erik McHenry walked, moved to second on a ground ball hit by Austin Warnke and scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Chase Stuver.

Warnke and Formanek each had two hits to lead the Lions.

Eric Ritter took the loss for the Lions. He lasted one inning, allowing five hits and four runs, while striking out two and walking zero.

“I told the kids after the game that this is why baseball is such a beautiful game, because on any given night any team has a chance to beat anybody if they play well and get a few bounces to go their way,” said Thompson.

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