The Lakers arrived in Oklahoma for a four game series verse Southwestern Community College that would take place on Sunday and Monday. On Sunday, the Lakers would split with the Spartans from Southwestern by winning the first game of the doubleheader 8-3 and losing the second game in extra innings by a score of 3-2. The first game of the doubleheader would feature a solid outing from the Lakers starting pitcher, Evan Sankey (Appleton, Wisconsin) who pitched 5 innings while giving up 3 runs, 2 earned and striking out 10 batters in the process. The Spartans would take the early 1-0 lead before the Lakers would put a crooked number on the board with a six run 4th inning, which was highlighted by Trevor Bormann's (Algona, Iowa) 3-run triple to break the game wide open. The Lakers would continue their offensive output when Alex Pavon (Bellevue, Nebraska) would single to lead off the inning, followed by Mallard Holland (Tampa, Florida) launching his first homerun of the year to left field through a stiff wind to increase the Laker lead to 8-1 going into the bottom half of the fifth inning. The Spartans would answer with two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, but would fall short as sophomore pitcher, Chris Isensee (Shakopee, Minnesota) would come in and close the door by pitching two scoreless innings.
Game two would prove to be a pitchers duel from the beginning as Frankie Cresta (Johnston, Iowa) would look to continue to build off of his success from his first outing. Cresta would shut down the Southwestern lineup for much of the game as he would go 5 innings while giving up just 2 runs, 0 earned and striking out 10 batters. The Lakers offense would be held quiet for the majority of the game, but one bright spot came in second inning when Andrew Eskens (Lincoln, Nebraska) would hit a double over the right fielders head to lead off the inning and would come around to score on combination of walks and hit by pitches that followed. Freshman pitcher, Logan Ferguson (Idaho Falls, Idaho) would suffer a tough loss on the mound in extra innings when the Spartan lineup would come up with a walk-off double that would end the game with a final score of 3-2 in favor of Southwestern Community College. Ferguson went 3 1/3 innings only allowing the lone run.
Iowa Lakes is in action again tomorrow afternoon against Southwestern Community College with a doubleheader that is scheduled for a noon start. Follow the games on the Iowa Lakes baseball twitter: @Lakers_Baseball