By Matt Brown
Correspondent
The Maple Lake Lakers are on the home stretch of the North Star League regular season, which officially comes to an end on Sunday, July 21. The Lakers currently sit in a tie for fifth with Litchfield and with only a few games to go a lot could happen in the standings, making the final three games critical. Hutchinson and Buffalo are separated by only one game at the top of the standings and play each other twice before the season is over with Delano hot on their tails for the top spot. The bottom-five teams are likely set unless Howard Lake gets hot and jumps Dassel-Cokato. Once the dust settles on the regular season and the play-in tournament the remaining eight teams will face off in Dassel to determine who goes to state.
Maple Lake 10, Waverly 0
The Lakers gave a hostile welcome to the Stingers last Wednesday, July 10, as starter Hunter Malachek struck out the side then leadoff batter Ben Clapp blasted a solo home run to go ahead. Donnie Mavencamp and Malachek also scored in the bottom of the frame to for a three-run lead in the first. Maple Lake threatened each inning until Mavencamp and Malachek scored again in the fourth thanks to Matt Bergstrom and Riley Decker. Logan Orazem singled and eventually scored along with Clapp off a Mavencamp single, who was eventually driven in along with Malachek off a single by Decker for a nine-run lead through five innings. Hunter did most of the heavy lifting to keep Waverly off the board to that point, striking out at least two in every inning until the sixth, which featured only one strikeout and probably the Stingers’ best chance to score. Malachek ended the night after seven innings pitched, giving up six hits and two walks against sixteen strikeouts. Ryley Hagen came in relief and kept the strikeouts coming with a pair in the eighth. Ben Goelz singled and stole a base before being driven in by Grant Mergen to end the game by the mercy rule.
Maple Lake 8, Dassel-Cokato 5
The Lakers travelled to Dassel Friday night for a critical game against the Saints. Nathan Zander crossed the plate in the second off a single from Ben Goelz to get the scoring going, only to be matched by DC in the bottom half of the inning. Zander scored again in the fourth, this time punching his ticket around the bases by putting the ball out of the park. Hunter Malachek got into the homerun column himself with a solo shot in the fifth, only to see Zander launch a three-run bomb to reclaim the homerun lead for the game. A DC pitching change slowed the Lakers down a bit but they would add two more in the ninth to pad their lead, only to see a mini-rally by the Saints in the bottom of the inning come up short. Zander finished the night with a single, two doubles, and two homeruns, which earned him four runs and four RBIs to lead the team offensively. Luke Fobbe started the game and went four, handing the ball off to Grant Mergen who went three innings and got the win, while Jarrett Faue closed out the last two innings.