Game Summary

Lakehead’s baseball club completed their weekend series Sunday afternoon against the U Minnesota Gophers, falling 3-2.

With a brisk wind blowing across the diamond, batters were hard pressed to challenge the tall, yet medium-range fences in the outfield.

Brendan Flanagan took the mound for the short-staffed ‘Wolves, and pitched a beauty of a game that included a five-pitch third inning (that was very nearly a three-pitch inning).

Flanagan got some run support in the top of the fourth, the ‘Wolves plating a run to lead 1-0. The lead was short-lived, however, with the Gophers responding to tie the game with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning.

Lakehead did have a chance to go ahead once more in the fifth, as Robert Shedden came to the plate with runners on the corners, only to have his teammate at first base picked off to end the inning.

Shedden would reach base in his following at-bat the next inning, and come around to score on a sacrifice fly by Ben Kennedy (photo left).

Minnesota responded once more in the bottom of the sixth, knocking ‘Wolves pitcher Flanagan out the game, and reaching base against reliever Alex Salterio as he struggled with his pitch location. A couple of walks and a hit batter later, Minnesota managed to tie the game at 2.

After stranding a base runner in the top of the 7th, the pitching issues would continue for Lakehead. The Gophers loaded the bases, and lifted a Salterio offering to the outfield for a walk-off sacrifice fly.

“We did a lot of good things this weekend,” said Lakehead coach Jason Hart.”If we said on Friday that we’d take two out of three this weekend, I’m sure there’d have been some sceptics. I always believe in these guys.”

Hart continued, “We finally got our bats going, and got some great pitching this weekend with a limited staff. Hopefully we keep this momentum rolling into our match-up next weekend.”

(Complete statistics were unavailable following this game)

Lakehead will travel next weekend to play U Wisconsin-Lacrosse.