Iowa Lakes opened up the conference season against Ellsworth Community College with a doubleheader that took place in Marshalltown, Iowa. The Lakers were able to split the series opening doubleheader with the Panthers by winning game 1 by a score of 5-2 and falling in game 2, 14-5.
In game 1, freshman pitcher Mitchell Hoover (Brandon Valley, South Dakota) toed the rubber for his first career collegiate start and would dominate the Panther lineup throughout the entire game. In the first inning, the Laker offense would start off with a bang when Spencer Keane (Palm Springs, California) would start the game with a lead off triple and would be brought home on a Spenser Larson (Eden Praire, Minnesota) sacrifice fly to center field, giving the Lakers the early 1-0 lead. With Hoover shutting the Ellswoth offense down on the mound, the Lakers would add on 2 more runs in the third inning with Larson and Tavan Shahidi (Ames, Iowa) both producing singles with two outs. Jayden Adrians (Green Bay, Wisconsin) would then follow with a walk to load the bases. Luis Cintron (Yabucao, Puerto Rico) and Chad Hinkle (Rosemount, Minnesota) both drove runs in on errors by the Ellsworth defense to increase the lead to 3-0 after three innings of play. In the fourth, Larson would strike again with a 2-out double to bring home Amir Moton-Thompson (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) who led off the inning with a walk. With the Lakers leading 4-0 after four innings, the Panther offense would get on the score board by scoring a run in the fifth which was quickly matched in the top of the sixth inning by the Laker offense from another RBI single by Larson. That would increase the lead to 5-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. Ellsworth would get a run in their half of the sixth inning but would get no more as Zach Meyer (Omaha, Nebraska) who would come on to pitch in the sixth and Beau Britton (Colorado Springs, Colorado) who would pitch in the seventh, would close the door and secure a 5-2 victory for the Lakers in game 1.
In game 2 would again see the Lakers get on the scoreboard early when Shahidi and Larson would pull off a successful double steal of second and home to give the Lakers the quick 1-0 after a half inning of play. From there, the Lakers defense would struggle and give up 6 runs in the bottom of the second inning on just 2 hits. The runs would keep coming for Ellsworth as they would increase the lead in the third to 9-1 by adding on 3 more runs. With the score now at 10-1 heading into the top of the fifth inning, Shahidi would provide a spark for Iowa Lakes as he hit a blast to left field for 3-run home run to cut into the 9-run deficit and bring the score to 10-4. Adrians would also score on an error by the Ellsworth defense and give the Lakers a chance to comeback with the score being 10-5 after the fifth. Ellsworth would add on 4 more insurance runs in the sixth inning to push the lead to 14-5 which would end up being the final score in game 2.
Some of the notable performances from Friday's doubleheader included a Spenser Larson 3-hit game along with 3 RBI's in game 1. Mitchell Hoover was also of note in game 1 by going 5 innings and giving up just the 1 run and striking out 3. Tavan Shahidi, in game 2, was of note with his 3-run home run to left field.
The Lakers will play Sunday (3/25) against Ellsworth Community College to finish the 4-game series. A location is yet to be determined. Follow @Lakerbaseball to get all of the location and time details for Sunday's games.