Lions remain unbeaten in NCC

[caption id="attachment_11050" align="alignleft" width="270"] Clear Lake’s Cooper Merrill tags out a Humboldt runner. Merrill also recorded three hits for the Lions. -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy[/caption]

The Clear Lake Lions remained unbeaten in the North Central Conference and picked up two non-conference wins last week.  The Lions fell to a pair of Class 4A schools to move to 11-4 on the season.  To date, the Lions have played five games against 4A teams, five games versus 3A opponents, three games against 2A teams, and two against 1A teams.

CL 8, Humboldt 1

Clear Lake used a six-run sixth inning to beat Humboldt 8-1 in North Central Conference baseball.

Clear Lake took a 2-0 lead in the first on a two-run single by Ethan McHenry. After Humboldt cut the lead to 2-1 in the fifth, the Lions batted around in the sixth, plating six runs, capped by a three-run homer by Ben Mason.

Brock Adams picked up the win, striking out nine and allowing only four hits, no walks and a hit batsman.

“This was a game our kids have been looking forward to quite a bit— ever since this same Humboldt team knocked them out of Districts last year,” explained Coach Seth Thompson.  “It was huge to get two runs on the board early to let Brock pitch with a lead the whole game and then finish things off with a bang in the last inning with the exclamation point being the first ever varsity home run by Ben Mason.  We have a lot of kids, including Ben, that work hard in the weight room to make themselves better athletes and Ben getting that ball over the fence I think shows him and all our kids that work they put in helps their team in big ways.  This was a huge conference win for us and a great start to a tough week.”

Cooper Merrill had three hits for the Lions.  Mason’s home run scored three. Parker Truesdell and Brock Adams each had doubles.

Adams went the distance on the mound.  The senior struck out eight and gave up four hits.

CL 4, West Fork 0

The Lions got another complete game out of their pitcher Tuesday, June 9.  Jacob Peterson got the win, striking out three and giving up nine hits.

“Anytime you can pitch seven innings and keep the other team off the board, you know you have done your job as a pitcher very well and you also know that your defense did their job, as well,” said Coach Thompson.  “We had a spectacular game on defense, and I think this is due to the combination of having great defensive players on our team and Jacob throwing strikes and keeping them in a rhythm and on their toes.  Our offense, unfortunately, kind of took a nap for most of the game after a big game the night before, but luckily this team can win games in more than one way, and tonight it was won on the mound and with our defense.”

Merrill provided two of the Lions’ six hits and had two RBIs and a stolen base.  Adams, McHenry, Matt Stephany and Devin Uhlenhopp had one hit apiece.

CL 12, Algona 2 (5)

A six-run fourth and five-run fifth lifted the Lions to a 12-2 victory over Algona Wednesday, June 10.

“Any win on the road in conference is huge, especially when it comes against the defending conference champions,” said Coach Thompson.

The Lion offense constantly applied pressure to the Bulldog defense and their pitcher, and that pressure finally caused some cracks in the middle  innings that allowed the Lions to score in bunches.

Rowdy Yates had a good night at the plate with a double, four RBIs and his first home run of the season.  Yates, Truesdell, McHenry, Mason and Uhlenhopp each had two hits.  Yates, along with Merrill, had doubles and Adams stroked a triple.

Brandon Tofte pitched the five-inning win.  He gave up seven hits and struck out one.

“Tofte probably didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but he is a such a good pitcher that he can still find ways to get good teams out on nights like this,” said Thompson.

Pleasant Valley 5, CL 3

The Lions stepped out of North Iowa to participate in the Battle of the Bluffs in Council Bluffs Friday and Saturday.  The Lions lost two of three games in the tournament, but gained some good experience, according to their coach.

They started the tourney against Class 4A Pleasant Valley.

“In all honesty we were very poor in pretty much every aspect of the game tonight and you are not going to win games against good 4A teams when that is the case,” said Coach Thompson. “It was a weird night of baseball with a very wet field and a mist falling the whole game, but both teams had to play the same conditions and they just did a better job tonight than we did.”

Despite not playing their best, the Lions kept the game close.  The score was tied 2-2 through four innings, but Pleasant Valley added two in the fifth and one in the sixth.  The Lions tried to rally, but could only score one in the seventh and lost, 5-3.

Clear Lake had just three hits.  Mason and Yates both smacked doubles, with Yates’ bringing in a run.  Keeran had the other hit and RBI.  Merrill also picked up an RBI.

Mason took the loss.  He gave up eight hits, walked three and struck out three in six innings.

CL 7, North Scott 4

The Lions returned to their winning ways in their next game.  They used 13 hits, including five extra base hits, to defeat

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North Scott Eldridge 7-4.

“I think we found out a lot about what kind of heart this team has to see them bounce back from what was their worst game of the year with probably their best game of the year,” said Coach Thompson.  “In my opinion they outplayed a ranked 4A team in every aspect of the game, which obviously is not an easy task.”

McHenry held North Scott hitters in check.  He surrendered just six hits, walked one and struck out three.  he also helped his cause by smacking a home run for the Lions.  Adams came in to get the final three outs in relief.

Merrill had three hits to lead the team.  Mason had two doubles and Keeran and Truesdell each had two hits for the Lions, one of Keeran’s hits was a double.

Glenwood 4, CL 2

“The fun part about the game of baseball is that on any given night something unexpected can happen on any given play, and we saw the wrong end of such an event in the sixth inning when a team that hadn’t hit a home run the entire season hit their first one with two outs and two guys on and down by one.  That kid could get the same pitch 100 more times and never get close to hitting one out, but he did so on that pitch and with that swing he won the game for his team.  That unfortunately is how things turn out sometimes,” said Coach Thompson after the Lions fell, 4-2, to Glenwood in their final game at the Battle of the Bluffs.

The two teams were scoreless through three innings.  Then the Lions added two runs in the top of the fourth.  Clear Lake had a 2-1 lead after five innings, but that’s when Glenwood worked its magic.  The home run scored three and gave them a 4-2 win.

Merrill gave up just three hits and struck out six. He walked two.

“The most disappointing part of this game was how miserable we were at bunting the baseball,” said Coach Thompson. “It actually was not surprising to see our offense run out of steam after playing our third game in less than 18 hours, and I thought Cooper did a nice job on mound and pitched well enough to allow his team to win.  What I told the kids afterwards is that I would rather get a bad break like that in a weekend tournament game than a conference or District game down the road.”

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