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Lakeville North Baseball Dominates Apple Valley 16-1

By Nick Kelly, Student Media Correspondent, 04/21/14, 9:15PM CDT

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"I just said, ‘this games over. I’m taking over and they’re not gonna have a shot to get back in this game," said Lehnen.

 

For the Lakeville North boys baseball team Monday afternoon, when hits came, they came in bunches.

The Eagles jumped out to the early lead with the first run at Apple Valley high school, but the Panthers took over from there with back-to-back 4-run innings and a 8-run sixth inning.

 The Panther bats led the way to a 16-1 victory for Lakeville North Monday afternoon, after a game Friday in which defense won the game for the Panthers. With four games remaining this week for the 4-1 Panthers, there is no time to rest, even with the strong start.

“Anytime you have the weekend off and you went to Mom’s house and got a nice meal, it takes a little while to get back in the groove of things,” said Coach Market of getting back from a holiday weekend.  “You always give them the first time through the order. Then you’ve gotta make your adjustments. Then you’ve got to execute.”

The Eagles started the game with a double that brought the runner on second home, which gave Apple Valley the 1-0 lead. The Eagles appeared to be in good shape after they held Lakeville North scoreless in the first two innings.

After the bottom of the second in which Panther ace pitcher Dalton Lehnen struck out three Apple Valley batters, the Eagle’s containment of the potent Panther bats came to an end. Lehnen’s base hit brought second baseman Matt Arnold home for the Panthers first score. With catcher Ben Jensen’s line drive out to left field that gave Lehnen and Altavilla the opportunity to come home, as well as Nick Oblak’s RBI, North found themselves up 4-1 going into the fourth inning.

The Panther bats stayed hot in the fourth with another 4-run inning. Sophomore right fielder Drew Stewart started the inning off with a single, and with scores by Stewart, Sayer, Arnold, and pinch runner Kyle Rhodus, Lakeville North possessed a commanding 8-1 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth after Oblak’s RBI single brought in two runners.

“We played really relaxed today,” said Nick Oblak. “We got our big hits when we needed to, and we were still getting big hits when we weren’t needing them. It just kind of fired everybody up and hitting wins games.”

Neither team added to their totals on the scoreboard in the fifth inning, but that changed in the sixth. With a hit from Haider in which two Eagles dove for the ball with no success, Angelo Altavilla started the Panthers on an 8-point, game-clinching inning. But, at the bottom of the sixth inning with the Eagles up to bat, it was time for the future Cincinnati Bearcat in Dalton Lehnen to be North’s closer.

“When I came out for the sixth inning, I just said, ‘this games over. I’m taking over and they’re not gonna have a shot to get back in this game,’” said Lehnen. “When I came out for that last inning, the mentality is a little different; it’s all or nothing.”

With two strikeouts, and help from his defense, Lehnen’s eight total strikeouts led the way to a 16-1 victory for the Lakeville North Panthers, a victory that head coach Tony Market was pleased with.

“Baseball is a funny game,” said Coach Market. “It can snowball into the good and it can snowball into the bad, so luckily for those guys, they did a nice job today.”

Nick  Kelly

Nick Kelly

Student Media Correspondent

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