By Matt Brown
Correspondent
The Maple Lake Lakers finished up the North Star League regular season last week, ending their campaign in third place overall. Delano claimed the regular season title with Hutchinson one game behind them. Litchfield, Buffalo, Howard Lake, and Cokato rounded out the top seven guaranteed playoff spots with a play-in tournament this weekend to determine the final entry.
Maple Lake 15, Rockford 8
The Lakers had their last NSL home game last Wednesday night, July 20 and they went out with a bang. Riley Decker and Ben Clapp singled to start the game and both were slowly chased around the bases by Hunter Malachek after he put the ball over the outfield fence. Donnie Mavencamp, Matt Bergstrom, and Grant Mergen all had singles to keep the action rolling in the first. Mavencamp eventually scored off a single by Logan Orazem to make it four in the first inning. Clapp was hit by a pitch to start the second and scored on a triple from Malachek, who was driven in by a Bergstrom ground-out. The offense caught their breaths in the third but went right back at it in the fourth, with five runs total, including a run from Brock Goelz and an RBI by Jordan Tanner, giving every Laker batter a run or RBI by the fourth inning. Rockford managed to put up three in the fifth and another in the sixth to keep the game within reach. Goelz put the game away with a three-run moon shot in the seventh that capped a four-run inning. Orazem got the win on the mound for his five innings of work while Ryley Hagen collected six strikeouts in four innings of relief.
Maple Lake 11, Buffalo 1