The Lakers celebrated sophomore day on Friday night when they welcomed the Iowa Central Tritons to Less-Hemberg Field for the last home doubleheader of the season. Both games would shape up to be close and really competitive between the two teams but Iowa Central would take both games in the doubleheader with the scores being 5-2 in game one and 9-6 in game two.

Game one would turn out to be a pitchers duel from the start when freshman pitcher Evan Sankey (Appleton, Wisconsin) would show dominate stuff early on against the Triton offense. Sankey would allow one run in the top of the third inning on a homerun to left field by that was quickly out done by the Laker lineup when they would put up two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead 2-1. Chad Hinkle (Rosemount, Minnesota) would tie the game on his opposite field homerun. Noah Catron (Praire City, Iowa), two batters later, would reach on an error and come around to score from third base on a sacrifice fly from Mallard Holland (Tampa, Florida). Iowa Central would sneak a run back in the top of the fifth but get no more as Sankey would continue his great performance on the mound. His outing would come to a close after the fifth and he would go five innings while only giving up the two runs and striking out seven in the process. Iowa Lakes would go silent offensively for the rest of the game as they could not get any momentum going and where as the Tritons would take the lead in the sixth with one run and add on in the seventh by scoring two more runs and bring the score to 5-2 which would end up being the final outcome in game one in favor of Iowa Central.

Game two would be a little different story as the bats would breakout for both teams as Iowa Central would get on the board early in first and second innings as they would score two runs in each of those innings to take a 4-0 leading heading into the bottom of the second. The Lakers would rally back in the bottom of the second when Tavan Shahidi (Ames, Iowa) would single to right field which would be followed up by a Spenser Larson (Eden Praire, Minnesota) single to put runners on first and second with one out. Both Tyrese Mitchell (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and Luis Cintron (Yabuccoa, Puerto Rico) would come up with big RBI single's to bring home Shahidi and Larson and cut the lead in half, 4-2. Iowa Central would increase their lead back to four runs as they would score single runs in the top of the fourth and top of the fifth innings to make 6-2. The Lakers lineup would again have an answer thanks to a one out single by Shahidi as well as a walk by Ashtin Moxey (Jacksonville, Florida) to put runners on first and second with one out. Both Larson and Hinkle woud drive them in each with RBI single's of their own to again cut the lead in half at 6-4. Iowa Central would continue their streak of scoring in consecutive innings as they would continue to add single runs in the top of the sixth and seventh innings but would be countered by a two runs by the Laker offense in the bottom of the seventh. Larson would single and come around to score from second on an RBI single from Hinkle. Hinkle would also come around score thanks to a BJ Johnson (Tallahassee, Florida) single to left field which would bring the score to 8-6 after seven inning of play. The Tritons would add insurance in the top of the ninth with a single run and increase the lead to 9-6 which would be the final score with the Lakers falling in game two to the Tritions.

Iowa Lakes will be in action Saturday (5/5) as they will hit the road to take on Iowa Central to conclude the series and the final regular season games of the year. Follow Iowa Lakes baseball, @Lakerbaseball, on twitter to get updates and other information regarding Iowa Lakes baseball. 

Photo Credited to Tara Catron Photography