Faribault Extends Season with Win at Home

The Faribault Lakers extended their season Tuesday night with a 4-3 thrilling come from behind victory over the Shakopee Coyotes.  Matt Lane went the distance for the Lakers retiring 12 of the last 13 batters he faced with 8 strikeouts and 2 walks, one intentional.

The Coyotes scratched 6 hits out while Faribault had 5 in my scorebook. Shakopee had 4 errors in the game that proved costly for them.

The Lakers took the lead in the first inning when Blake Langerud was walked to start the inning and scored on a double play ball off the bat of Lane.  Danny Pierce singled in front of Lane to get the first two batters on base.

Shakopee tied the game in the 4th when Mike Johnson started the inning with a double.  Following a pop out Faribault elected to give an intentional pass to the #3 hitter in the order, Jac Campbell to set up a potential double play.  Andy Lazzari instead popped out to shortstop Grote in shallow left field.  Tanner Graff had a infield single.  Designated hitter Jeff Hohenstein hit a grounder to third base.  There was an error on the throw to first resulting in the Coyotes run.

Shakopee got a 3-1 lead in the 6th when Campbell led the inning off with a 0-1 count home run to left center field.  Lazzari was safe on a error.  Graff was walked.  Hohenstein popped out.  Lazzari advanced to third base on a ground out by Isensee and scored on a wild pitch to give the Coyotes a 3-1 lead.

The Lakers tied the game in the bottom of the 7th inning.  Mitch Johnson started the inning with a strikeout but the ball got by the catcher who tried to throw Johnson out going to third base and hit him with the ball.  Mike Carpentier then hit a double down the left field line advancing Jarvis Von Ruden who was running for Johnson to third base.

Willie Von Ruden went into the game to run for Carpentier and both Von Rudens  scored on a Dylan Valentyn single.

Faribault scored the winning run in the bottom of the 8th inning.  Joey Grote reached first base on a error.  Johnson executed a sacrifice bunt to get Grote to second.  The veteran shortstop scored on another error off a ball hit by Valentyn.

Shakopee starting pitcher, lefty Chris Isensee went 6 plus innings with 1 strikeout, 3 walks, 4 hits allowed.  He threw 82 pitches with 45 strikes.  Jac Campbell threw the rest of the game and took the loss on a unearned run in the bottom of the 8th inning.  He threw 29 pitches, 20 strikes.

Lane went the distance with 114 total pitches thrown, 81 strikes.  He said after the game he felt, "Really good out there."

The Lakers will host Prior Lake Thursday with the winner punching their ticket to the State Tournament.  First pitch is 7:30 p.m.  If they win they would play again Saturday on the road at 2:00 p.m. against either Lonsdale or Union Hill to determine the #3 and #4 seed out of Region 3C.

In other Region 3C action Tuesday.  Winner's bracket St. Patrick cruised by Union Hill 10-0 in 7 innings.  #6 seed New Prague edged Prior Lake 5-4.  St. Patrick hosts New Prague 1:00 p.m. Sunday for the Region 3C Championship and a bye in the first round of the State Tournament.

The other loser's bracket game Lonsdale ended St. Benedict season 6-1.  The #3 seed Aces will host Union Hill at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

Another area score from Tuesday, the Northfield Knights punched their ticket to state with a 4-1 win over the Rochester Royals at Sechler Park in Northfield.  Jake Mathison got the win for Northfield.  The Knights had 14 hits while the Royals tallied 8.