The Lakers would once again hit the road Monday (4/16) and Tuesday (4/17) and travel to Nebraska City, Nebraska to take on Northeast Community in what would be considered a home series for Iowa Lakes.

Game one would see the Laker offense get off to a great start in the bottom of the first inning when Tavan Shahidi (Ames, Iowa) would blast a 2-run homerun to centerfield to put Iowa Lakes in front 2-1 after trailing early in the game. The Lakers would add on another run the bottom of the second inning as well when Dillon Van Oosbree (Emmetsburg, Iowa) would start the inning off with a lead off walk and followed up in the next at bat by a Noah Catron (Praire City, Iowa) single to right centerfield. Van Oosbree would advance to third on a Spencer Keane (Palm Springs, California) ground out and would come around to score on a wild pitch to increase the Laker lead to 3-1. Freshman pitcher Carl Renz (Pewaukee, Wisconsin) would be given the ball to start the game and would flash dominance throughout the entire game as he would cruise through the first five innings with giving up just the one run and striking out 10 Northeast hitters. The Lakers would take control of the game in the bottom of the fourth when Catron and Keane would both single with one out and be brought home on a 3-run homerun by Shahidi, his second of the game which gave the Lakers a 6-1 lead heading into the fifth. The Lakers would add two more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth when Chad Hinkle (Rosemount, Minnesota) and Van Oosbree would both come around to score to push the lead to 8-1. Northeast, however, would not go down quietly as they would score three in the top of the sixth and one in the top of the seventh to cut the lead to 8-5 before the Van Oosbree would come in to pitch in the top of the seventh to get the last two outs of the game via the strikeout.

Game two saw the Iowa Lakes offense get on the score board early and often. In the bottom of the first inning, both Keane and Mallard Holland ( Tampa, Florida) would walk with one out in the inning when Shahidi would again come through with a big extra base hit and drive home two runs on his double to center field. With the Lakers up 2-0 early, Mitch Hoover (Brandon Valley, South Dakota) would look good early as he would throw a scoreless first two innings before he would run into some trouble in the third when Northeast would put up three runs on three extra base hits to put the Hawks up 3-2 heading the bottom of the third. The Lakers would take back the lead in a commanding way by scoring five runs of their own and giving them the advantage with the score now 7-3. The rally started with one out in the inning when Holland would walk which was then followed by a Shahidi single, Jayden Adrians ( Green Bay, Wisconsin) and Ashtin Moxey's ( Jacksonville, Florida) back to back walks to bring home Holland and reload the bases. With two outs and two strikes on Van Oosbree, he would come up clutch with a bases clearing double down the left field line. Van Oosbree would advance to third on the throw home and come around to score on a Hinkle RBI single. Both Northeast and the Lakers would trade runs in the fourth to push the lead to 8-4 before freshman pitcher Evan Sankey ( Appleton, Wisconsin) would come in from the pen and dominate the Hawks hitters from the sixth inning on. Sankey would go on to throw the final four innings and only give up three runs while striking out five in a very impressive performance from the young right-hander. Iowa Lakes would add another run in the sixth to increase the lead and the momentum more in their favor with the score now 9-4. The Lakers would put the nail in the coffin with a three run inning in the bottom of the eighth with two outs and the bases load. Adrians would come up big when he would clear the bases with a 3-run double to right center field. With the lead now at 12-5 for Iowa Lakes heading to the top of the ninth, Northeast would get back two runs on a home run to left field but would get no more as Sankey would shut it down and give the Lakers the double header sweep of Northeast on day 1.

Game 3 of the series against Northeast Community College would see much of the same as the first two games of the series which is a lot of offense and runs put up on the scoreboard. The Hawks would jump on the scoreboard early with a run in the top of the first to give them a 1-0 lead. The Lakers would answer right back with a run of their own in the bottom half of the first when BJ Johnson (Tallahassee, Florida) would lead off with single and would come around score on sacrifice fly out from Shahidi. Zach Meyer (Omaha, Nebraska) meanwhile would continue that momentum on the mound wth a shut down inning in the top second by recording two of three outs via the strike out. The Lakers would take the lead in the second with the help of a Hinkle two out single who would advance to second on a stolen base. Johnson would come up with a big two out single to drive home Hinkle and give Iowa Lakes the 2-1 advantage. Northeast came out swinging in the third and would and retake the lead 3-2 and add on to that lead with five more in the top half of the fourth inning. With the Hawks leading 8-2 in the bottom of the fourth, the Lakers would inch their way back into the game with a three run inning of their own. Spenser Larson (Eden Praire, Minnesota) would lead the inning off with a single. Tyrese Mitchell (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) would walk with one out inning and both Larson and Mitchell would advance a base thanks to a wild pitch. Larson would come in to score on another wild pitch while Mitchell would advance to third base. Keane would deliver an RBI groundout to bring home Mitchell to bring the score to 8-4. Johnson would reach base once more on a hit by pitch and would eventually come around to score on a series of wild pitches. With the score now 8-5, Northeast would add an insurance run in the top of fifth and increase their lead to 9-5. Iowa Lakes would continue to their comeback in the bottom half of the inning with an Adrians lead off walk and Larson one out double to put runners at second and third. With two outs in the inning, Mitchell would come up with big 3-run homerun to close the gap on the scoreboard and bring Iowa Lakes within a run at 9-8. The Lakers come comeback would fall short however as the Northeast bullpen would come in and shut the door and give the Hawks a 9-8 victory in game 3.

Game 4 would be the deciding factor and big game for Iowa Lakes on whether or not they would take the series or split. The Lakers would step up in a big way with 10-1 win in the series finale. The combination of a spectacular outing from sophomore pitcher Martin Eckard (Victoria, Columbia) and an explosive offense would give the advantage to Iowa Lakes in game 4. Eckard would go 5 and 2/3 innings with 5 strikeouts and giving up just the single run in second inning. Multiple run innings along with the long ball would play a big factor the Lakers offense as they would go on to hit three in the game off the bats of Hinkle, Holland, and Van Oosbree. Holland would hit his 3-run homerun along with Hinkle's solo homerun in the bottom of the third as part of a six run inning that would give all the momentum to Iowa Lakes. Keane would come up with big 2 run single in the fourth inning which highlighted another multi run inning and increase the lead to 9-1 after four innings. Van Oosbree would blast a solo homerun in the bottom of the fifth for good measure add some insurance for the Lakers and bring the score to 10-1 which would end up being the final tally on the scoreboard.

Iowa Lakes improves to 14-20 overall and 5-11 in conference and look to continue their hot streak of games against Southeastern Community College (30-9, 12-4) next weekend in four game series that is scheduled for Saturday (4/21) and Sunday (4/22). First pitch Saturday is scheduled for 1 pm. Follow @Lakerbaseball to get all the in-game updates, scheduling information, and other details about Iowa Lakes baseball.