Iowa Lakes had their home opener on Tuesday vs. Central Lakes Community College. With the wind galling in, hits were hard to find for both teams. In game one, the scoring was stagnant up until the Raiders struck first plating the run number 1 in the top of the 5th making the score 1-0. The Lakers would tie the game up in the bottom of the 5th when Dean Bedell (Treynor, Iowa) would lead the inning off with a single up the middle and would get to second base on a sac bunt from Austen Daliet (New Orleans, Louisiana). Devin Brackin (Tampa, Florida) would rope a ball down the right field line for a double and score Bedell from second base to knot the game up 1-1. Central Lakes would tack on two more to make it 3-1 in the top of the 6th. Iowa Lakes threatened in the bottom of the 7th inning as they loaded the bases with nobody out. Sam Steinmeyer (Lincoln, Nebraska) lined a ball right to the shortstop who then flipped it to the second baseman for an unfortunate double play before a groundout by Beau Sackett (Malcolm, Nebraska) grounded out to end it. Jacob Buffington (Bogart, Georgia) got the start going 3 innings with 0 runs allowed. Austin Charboneau (Idaho Falls, Idaho) came in and went 2 1/3 innings giving up 3 runs with only 1 earned. Lucas Gardner (Estherville, Iowa) came in and threw 1 2/3 innings giving up 0 runs.
In game two, the scoring started early for both teams. The Raiders scored in the top of the first to make it 1-0. In the bottom of the first, Andrew Eskens (Lincoln, Nebraska) led the inning off with a walk and a Chipper Holland (Tampa, Florida) reached on a hit by pitch. A wild pitch would move Eskens and Holland up to make it second and third with two outs. Brackin would single to right field to bring in Eskens from third base to tie the game up at 1. Central Lakes would tack on 2 in the 4th and 2 in the 5th. The Lakers offense put 3 runs across in the 5th. The scoring started with a Sam Steinmeyer (Lincoln, Nebraska) to left field followed by a Jimmy Mapakou (Vauréal, Île-de, France) single to the left side. Eskens would hit into a fielder's choice to make it runner on first and third. Adrians and Brackin would go back-to-back singles to score 3 runs and cut the Raider lead to 5-4. After allowing a 4 run 6th, the Lakers would get 1 more in the 6th when Spencer Keane (Palm Springs, California) would lead off with a single to left center and would steal second base to get into score position. Marcus Pronay (Innisfil, Ontario) would score Keane on a single up the middle to make the score 9-5, but that was all the Lakers would get. Getting his second start for Iowa Lakes was Tyler Shafer (Nevada, Iowa) went 3 innings giving up 3 runs. Brendan Gartzka (Fort Collins, Colorado) came in and threw 1 inning allowing 2 runs, Alex Pavon (Bellevue, Nebraska) came in and pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up 4 runs, 3 earned, and Tomas Pinet (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) finished off with 2/3 of an inning allowing 0 runs.
The Lakers move to 11-9 overall (3-5 ICCAC) and will face off against the Bears of DMACC on Saturday and Sunday. Follow the Lakers on twitter @Lakers_Baseball for the most up to date information.