By Matt Brown
The Maple Lake Lakers continue their winning ways, stretching to an 8-game winning streak after a slate of games against mid-Minnesota clubs during the St. Martin tournament last weekend. The Lakers sit atop the North Star League standings at 2-0, the only team with two games and two wins. Maple Lake has also got some attention at the state level, coming in as the No. 4 ranked team in Class C.
Maple Lake 7, Princeton 2
Maple Lake got on the board early against their guests the Princeton Panthers when Riley Decker crossed home after singles by Ben Clapp and Hunter Malachek. The visitors went up 2-1 by the seventh when the Laker bats started to string hits together again. Brady Scanlon scored after a Luke Fobbe single and a ball in play by Clapp to level the score in the seventh. Logan Orazem and Jake Bergstrom singled in the eighth and eventually scored, along with Scanlon, Fobbe, and Clapp to give the home team a comfortable lead going into the ninth. Pitching was by committee with Orazem, Gavin Wolff, Ryley Hagen, Malacheck, Nathan Zander, Grant Mergen (for the win), and Jordan Tanner each getting an inning or two, with Hagen and Zander leading the strikeout count with two each.
Maple Lake 2, Cold Spring 1
Cold Spring started the game against Maple Lake in a big way, scoring a lead-off home run against Hunter Malachek. Matt Bergstrom flipped the lead to the good guys with a two-run single, scoring Luke Fobbe and Riley Decker in the bottom of the frame. The pitchers settled in after that and the score did not change for six more innings. Malachek went all seven and got eight strikeouts against six hits and a walk.