Legion Baseball: Lakeville North clobbers Post 54 to end season

Red Wing’s season came to a crashing conclusion Thursday with a 12-1 loss to Lakeville North at the Red Wing Athletic Field.

Post 54 finished with four hits for the second consecutive game and struggled to mount any sort of threat after a lethargic performance.

“You could tell during batting practice it wasn’t the same energy,” Red Wing head coach Justin Plein said. “You get in that loser’s bracket and it’s a long way back. Once they scored one in the first and four in the second it really killed us.”

Lakeville North tagged Post 54 starter Joel Newman for seven runs on 10 hits in three innings. Newman didn’t get much help defensively as several miscues extended the inning for Lakeville North.

“We didn’t make some plays behind him that we normally would make,” Plein said. “Then it kind of snowballed from there.”

The first batter Newman faced hit a fly ball to right center field that fell between two outfielders on what appeared a routine fly ball.

Post 54 (14-4) played without Preston Blaney, Karsten Lampman and Mike Stegora. Stegora and Blaney play outfield spots.

“I don’t know if guys thought, ‘Hey, we’re missing a few guys’ and not come in with the same mentality that they came out with in the high school season and all summer long,” Plein said. “It’s hard to point to one thing.”

Austin Striet led Lakeville North with a 4-for-5 performance and five RBI. Henry Wehlage went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run, Zack Creighton finished 3-for-4 with four runs, and T.J. Evanson had three RBI with a 3-for-4 game.

“Lakeville is a good hitting team,” Plein said. “They have a few kids that just got done with freshman year of college.”

Lakeville North finished with 18 hits in the game and led 7-0 after the third inning. Lakeville North hitters were on their third plate appearance by the time Red Wing got through the order for the first time.

David Goggin had two of Post 54’s hits and scored the team’s only run in the sixth inning. Goggin finished 2-for-3 with a double.

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