Faribault Lakers Begin Season with Split

The Faribault Lakers amateur baseball team began their season with a 7-4 loss to New Prague on Saturday, followed by an 8-7 win over Elko on Sunday.

Both games were played at Bell Field. Matt Lane started the first game and suffered the loss while going the first five innings, and Jack Helgeson and Evan Knutson got in some work. Lane crunched a grand slam home run in the sixth inning, making it 6-4. The ball struck the scoreboard. The Lakers had the bases loaded later but couldn't put anything together.

Line totals were New Prague 7-13-1, Faribault 4-7-7.

A number of Lakers players couldn't be at the game, and some had to play out of position. Some of the guys told me after the game they hadn't picked up a bat since their loss last September in the State Amateur Baseball Tournament.

The team made incredible improvement from game one to game two with Jack Helgeson leading the way. Helgeson had a one-hitter through five innings and kept a very good hitting Elko team off balance. He took a shutout into the ninth inning when a combination of an apparently tiring Helgeson and some interesting calls behind the plate led to a seven-run top of the ninth for Elko. Matt Lane came in to record the final out and collect a save while preserving Helgeson's win.

Dylan Valentyn smacked a grand slam homer in the first inning to get the Lakers going. Faribault added four more runs in the eighth inning and starts the season 1-1. Their next game is Sunday, May 17, at 2 p.m. when the New Market Muskies visit Bell Field.