Lions land seven on All-NCC teams

The Clear Lake Lions baseball team landed three players on the 2017 All-North Central Conference First Team, while four others earned recognition in the all-conference balloting.

Junior Zach Lester was one of three unanimous picks on the All-NCC First Team.  Joining him was pitcher Max Hackbarth and outfielder Riley Mishler, both from NCC champion Webster City.  Lester was chosen as a First Team infielder.  He had a .413 batting average and .543 slugging percentage in 14 games played.  During the NCC season he stroked four doubles and a triple and was credited with 18 RBIs.  He stole five bases.  His fielding percentage was a reliable 96 percent.

Senior infielder Jacob Peterson and junior outfielder Nathan Tofte also represented Clear Lake on the First Team.

In conference games, Peterson batted .404 through 14 games with a slugging percentage of .519.  His hits included three doubles and a home run.  He had 15 RBIs. In the field, Peterson posted an impressive .970 fielding percentage.

Tofte had a .380 batting average with a slugging percentage of .508 during the NCC season.  His 20 hits included five doubles, helping him to 19 RBIs.  He had no errors during the conference season.

Pitcher Jackson Hamlin, a junior, and freshman infielder Erik McHenry were named to the All-NCC Second Team.

Hamlin compiled a 3-3 record against North Central competition.  He held opponents to a .248 batting average and had an earned run average of 1.67.  He struck out 47 batters during his six starts and 37 and two-thirds innings of work.

McHenry batted .350 in 14 conference games.  He had four doubles and eight RBIs.

Clear Lake senior Tanner Huey and junior Ben Finn were All-NCC Third Team selections.  At the plate, Huey batted .294 with eight RBIs and an on-base percentage of .467 through 12 conference games.  He had no errors in the field.  Finn played in 14 conference games, batting .300 with a double and eight RBIs.

“I was happy to see so many Lions represented as All-Conference players,” said Clear Lake Coach Seth Thompson.  “Zach was the only unanimous first-team infielder, which is a pretty cool thing for an underclassman to accomplish.  Unfortunately, three of our four seniors had to miss a significant number of conference games due to injury, so it was tough for them to get the recognition we would have wanted.  However, two of them did get recognized and five underclassmen did as well, which hopefully those kids coming back will be able to build upon for their upcoming season.”