Lions roll past Denver in State opener

(Above) There’s no doubt where Clear Lake pitcher Ben Mason is when you can see the State Capital in the background.  According to Coach Seth Thompson, Mason attacked the strike zone all night and did a great job on the mound for the Lions. -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

Clear Lake began defense of its 2015 Class 2A State Championship with a convincing 10-5 win over Denver on Monday afternoon at Principal Park in Des Moines.  With the win, the Lions (29-7) advance to the semi-finals Thursday night.  They will take on Hinton (24-5), the only other returning State qualifier in the 2A field.  The Blackhawks have made the select field for the third straight year and got their first state tournament win Monday over Van Buren Community, 9-1.  It will be a battle of David and Goliath, as the Lions are the largest school in the class with 283 students in grades nine through 11, while Hinton is the smallest with 168.  Clear Lake and Hinton will play at 5 p.m. Thursday.

The Lions appeared to be right at home at Principal Park and started the scoring right away.  Parker Truesdell got the first hit of the game and scored on a base hit by Zach Lester.

Denver got its first run off Ben Mason in the top half of the third when Tyler Jessen lead off with a single, Zach Miller moved him with a sacrifice bunt and Eli Barrett brought him in on an error to tie the game at 1-1.

But the Lions wasted no time in taking back the lead.  In the bottom half of the third Mason was issued a walk and advanced on a base hit single to right field by Ethan McHenry.  The bases became loaded when Denver’s shortstop mishandled a hard-hit ball from Zach Lester.  Tanner Huey put the Lions ahead, 2-1, with a sacrifice bunt and was safe at first to keep the bases loaded.  Denver’s pitcher, Zach Miller, then provided the Lions with two more runs with a walk to Erik McHenry and hitting Brad Burns in the batter’s box.  The third inning ended with Clear Lake in control, 4-1.

Clear Lake scored two more in the fourth and four in the fifth to open up the game with a nine-run lead heading into the sixth.  In both innings, the Lions scored their runs with two outs.

A walk to Ethan McHenry and base hit by Lester set the stage for Huey’s second hit in the game.  This time, a shot down the left field line scored two runs and left Huey standing on second with the score at 6-1.

In the fifth, designated hitter Jacob Peterson started things off with a base hit, then was joined on the base paths by Cooper Merrill, who smacked a double to deep centerfield.  A fly ball to shallow right dropped in for Mason and scored two runs, 8-1.  The Cyclones were spiraling when Ethan McHenry smacked a base hit up the middle to score another run and Lester followed with an infield base hit.

Coach Seth Thompson took advantage of the situation and called a double steal with Huey at the plate and runners at the corners.  Lester took off for second and McHenry rumbled home.  The play was close at the plate, but the Denver catcher couldn’t hang on as McHenry, an All-State hockey player, slid into the plate to make the score 10-1.

Denver scored four runs on six hits in the sixth to bring the game within five. Mitch Siech came in the sixth in relief of Josh Schaefer and shut down Clear Lake in the bottom half of the sixth to enter their final inning still down by five, 10-5.

Mason entered the seventh and continued the success that he had all day by getting Brock Farley to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game and secure the victory for Clear Lake. Mason went the complete game, allowing five runs, four earned, from nine hits and one walk, while striking out two.

“Ben just attacked the strike zone all night, and when you are playing with a lead that is exactly what you need your pitcher to do.  Our defense made a couple errors but I thought made some really nice plays as well to make up for those mistakes, and just like we have seen all postseason we got some key hits with guys on base to keep putting runs on the scoreboard.”

Denver, making its second state tournament appearance and first since 2000, finished at 20-6.  The Cyclones were hot in the post-season, upsetting the 10th-ranked and third-ranked teams to get to State.  Denver pitching allowed only five runs through four District games.   The Lions scored their 10 runs with 12 hits off Denver pitching.  They stranded 11 on the bases.  Miller took the loss for Denver.

“Baseball is a mental game, and I think that once the kids got to Principal Park and were flooded with so many positive memories over the years it didn’t take much to get them in the right frame of mind to play the game and play it well,” said Coach Thompson.  “Our offense is clicking right now as well as it has all year, and it was great to see the kids respond after Denver tied the game at 1-1 with three runs over their own in the bottom of the same inning to retake the lead that they never gave up.”