Bulldogs baseball strong in tournament wins
Published 8:57 am Monday, June 29, 2009
The Twin River Valley tournament gave the Lake Mills baseball team an opportunity to regroup following a disappointing loss to conference foe Belmond-Klemme.
The Bulldogs (14-8) entered Saturday reeling from a 4-3 loss to the Broncos Friday that put the two teams in a tie for second in the conference, but Lake Mills regrouped for a pair of wins to claim the Twin River Valley tournament championship.
The Bulldogs started strong with a 24-5 win over CAL in four innings as they took advantage of nine walks and were hit by 10 pitches.
Lake Mills tallied just eight hits in the game and held an 11-1 lead after the first inning.
Wade Hebrink went 2-for-3 with four RBIs while Chris Throne added a 2-for-4 performance with three RBIs.
The Bulldogs made up for last year’s tournament loss to Twin River Valley with a 14-2, six-inning win in the championship.
Lake Mills broke a 1-1 tie in the second inning with a run and went on to add three in the third and five in the fourth to break the game open.
The Bulldogs connected for 19 hits as all but two hitters had a base hit.
The top of the order was potent for the Lake Mills offense as leadoff hitter Royce Byrnes went 4-for-4 with two RBIs and No. 2 hitter Brad Midlang went 4-for 4-for-5. The duo helped set the table for Throne, who drove in three runs on two base hits.
Drey LyBarger and Scott Abbey each went 3-for-4 on the day.
Lake Mills 24, CAL 5, 4 innings
Lake Mills 1161 6xx x — 24 8 2
CAL 140 0xx x — 5 3 6
WP — Scott Abbey 1 2/3 IP, 0 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 6 BB, 3 K
Lake Mills 14, Twin River Valley 2, 6 innings
Lake Mills 113 504 x — 14 19 3
Twin River Valley 101 000 x — 2 4 3
WP — Levi Dahle 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 6 BB, 3 K