CL and Humboldt tied for NCC title

[caption id="attachment_11340" align="alignleft" width="228"] Clear Lake’s Brad Burns was the winning pitcher against Garrigan on Tuesday, June 30. Burns struck out three batters. -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy[/caption]

The sixth ranked (2A) Clear Lake baseball team (22-10) is tied for the North Central Conference lead with three games remaining.  Coach Seth Thompson is encouraging all Lion fans to come to the diamond tonight (Wednesday, July 8) to see the team play their last regular season game against St. Ed’s.  “We would love to see as many from our great community come out to support our kids in their last regular season game Wednesday night as they battle for a conference championship,” he said.

A one-run loss to Humboldt last week put the Lions in a tie for the NCC title.  The two teams have split during the regular season.  Humboldt’s other loss came to Hampton-Dumont, while the Lions dropped  a game to Webster City.

The Lions bounced back from their rough start to the week with three conference wins and a show of strength against non-conference Garner-Hayfield Ventura to move to 22-10  overall.

Humboldt 2, CL 1

Runs were hard to come by at Humboldt June 29 and as a result the Wildcats (18-5) posted a 2-1 NCC victory over the Lions.

“Coming into the season we knew the game at Humboldt would be the toughest win to get in conference and unfortunately we just came up a few hits short tonight,” said Coach Thompson.  “Their pitcher was pumping it in there pretty good tonight and battled through a lot of three-ball counts without giving up a walk.”

Brenden Schnell limited the Lions to just five singles from five different batters.  Cooper Merrill, Mitch Keeran, Jacob Hogan, Ben Mason and Matt Stephany were the only Lions to reach base on hits.  Stephanie’s hit scored one run in the second inning.

Humboldt tied the score in the fourth and earned the win in the bottom of the seventh with a hit off Cooper Merrill.  Merrill allowed seven hits, struck out two and walked two in the game.

“Cooper pitched well enough on most nights to give us a win but on this particular night runs were very hard to come by,” said Thompson.

CL 7, Garrigan 2

The Lions wasted no time in getting on top of Bishop Garrigan (24-7) Tuesday, June 30.  They scored five runs in the first, then added two more for good measure in the sixth on their way to a 7-2 victory.

“Garrigan hasn’t lost too many games this year so it was nice to pick up a win against them tonight,” said Coach Thompson.  He praised the play of his pitcher, Brad Burns, who was making just his second varsity start.  Burns, a junior, got the win, allowing five hits, striking out three and walking one in five innings of work.  Sophomore Jacob Peterson threw the final two innings, giving up three hits.  He struck out one and walked one.

Ethan McHenry fueled the offense with three of the teams’ 11 hits and two RBIs.  Merrill, Keeran and Hogan had two hits apiece.  Parker Truesdell stroked a double that scored a run.

CL 2, Algona 1

The Lions survived a late rally by defending conference champion Algona (13-14) and escaped with a 2-1 victory Wednesday, July 1.

Coach Thompson put junior Ben Mason on the mound.  Mason delivered by holding the Bulldogs to four hits.  He struck out six and walked one.

“Ben has started five games for us this year so far and they have all been against 4A teams, so he was definitely battle-tested coming into this game against a good Algona team and the defending conference champions.  He did a nice job of attacking the strike zone and keeping them off balance and our offense gave us just enough runs to allow our pitching and defense to win this game for us.”

The Lions scored their runs early, plating batters in the first and third innings.  Algona tried to rally with one run in the sixth, but Mason and the Lion defense shut down the threat.

Clear Lake’s two runs were scored with six hits provided by Brock Adams, McHenry, Keeran, Hogan, Rowdy Yates and Matt Stephany.  McHenry was credited with both RBIs.

CL 17, GHV 1

The Lions scored 17 runs on nine hits, as they cruised past Garner-Hayfield/Ventura (8-17) on July 2.  The offensive output was lead by Keeran’s home run which scored three runs.  Keeran also had a single in the game.

“This was a pretty special night for Clear Lake baseball, with nine seniors taking the field on senior night and not just winning, but in impressive fashion,” said Coach Thompson.  “This is the first time as a coach here that we have been able to graduate nine seniors and to see them all out there playing and playing well was pretty special.  Mitch put the exclamation point on the night with a huge home run into the tree in center field.”

Two more seniors also figured big in the scoring, as Brock Adams had two hits, as well, and had a team-high four RBIs.  Devin Uhlenhopp had one hit and three RBIs.

Brandon Tofte was the winning pitcher.  He limited the Cardinals to four hits.  The senior struck out three and walked two.

CL 8, Webster City 6

Revenge was likely on the Lions’ minds as they faced Webster City (7-13) in a conference battle July 3.  On June 16, the Lynx handed the Lions one of their two conference losses this season.  Daniel Halko, who confused the Lions on the first go-round, was back on the mound.  But this time the team did a better job figuring out Halko and the Lynx defense made a few miscues.

“As a coach it was great to see our kids get a chance to see the same pitcher that beat us a few weeks ago and get 11 hits and eight runs this time around.  He is one of the better pitchers in our conference and has been tough to beat,” said Coach Thompson.

It was a game of big innings, as the Lions put seven runs on the board in the first inning and added another in the fourth.

Ethan McHenry was stellar on the bump for the Lions in the early going, but in the fifth the junior began to tire and the Lynx jumped on the opportunity.  Coach Thompson pulled McHenry and brought

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in Merrill to close out the frame, but not before the Lynx transformed hits and Lion errors into a six-run sixth inning.

Adams took the mound for the final three outs and closed out the win.

“Ethan pitched very well the first five innings and perhaps the best part of the night was getting a chance to see Brock hop up on the mound and pitch again after fighting through a shoulder injury that kept him off the mound for the last three weeks,” said the coach.  “He was incredibly sharp and having him available to pitch this last week of conference games and heading into districts adds a lot to our pitching staff and team.”

McHenry got the win, allowing three  hits and five runs, four of them earned.  He struck out six and walked three.  Merrill gave up one hit and one unearned run.  Adams had one strike-out.

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