Kernan, Lakers seek to build momentum at State AA

The mid-May return of first baseman Danny Kernan gave the Kalispell Lakers a little different kind of Super Senior, in that Kernan spent his year of college at no baseball-playing Montana State.

OK, that’s not entirely true, since the Bobcats list baseball as one of their club sports. But Kernan, pulling a heavy course load while chasing a chemical engineering degree, didn’t have time for that.

“It’s pretty busy,” Kernan said of his field of study. “And I take a lot of credits.”

So ahead of a May 16 doubleheader against Great Falls, Kernan had no real spring training. By then the Lakers’ season was 11 games old, and Kernan had managed a few swings in the Bozeman Bucks’ batting cages.

“Which was awesome,” he said of the Bucks’ hospitality. “But it was pretty much just getting thrown into it.”

He still batted third in the order and supplied a knock and two runs scored. At the time the Lakers were 11-2; a nice mix of veterans and up-and-comers pushed that record to 33-11-1 with 10 wins in 12 games.

The wheels have gotten wobbly since. A season-long spate of injuries seemed to catch up with the Lakers the last two weeks. They dropped three of four games to Helena and four straight to the first-place Billings Royals.

This is no crime: The Royals have won 20 straight games. But the State AA tournament begins today in Great Falls — the Lakers play the Billings Scarlets at 1 p.m. — and so Kernan and Co. are looking for silver linings.

“It’s been kind of a pretty big drag on us, really,” Kernan, who is hitting .339, allowed. “The injuries start to add up and take a bit of a toll.”

It’s a who’s-who: Thomas O’Connell was expected to throw some but is relegated to designated hitter duties; top pitcher AJ Wood has been sidelined; Ayden Driear’s bat has been missed following another injury.

Kernan, meanwhile, has been battling a sore back and arm.

“I haven’t been able to pitch as much as I’d like to,” he said. “I haven’t gone more than three innings.”

One positive for this 34-18-1 squad is a lot of the losses have been tantalizingly close.

“A lot of 1- or 2-run games that just didn’t go our way, especially in the later innings,” Kernan said. “We were right there. Now we just need a couple hops to go one way or the other for us. We lost a lot of really, really close games.”

Relative newcomers like Carver Van Aken, Elijah Owens, Grady Drish and Max Holden have come on. Drish has taken over the catching duties after Kael Willis got bangedup; Van Aken has batted leadoff at times; Owens has supplied some key hits.

“Max Holden has been a really good pitcher for us,” Kernan added. “He always has that confidence that he can get the job done. He has really good stuff.”

There’s still some fight left it seems. Ethan Diede, for example, made the trip to Great Falls three days after a bad hop knocked one of his teeth out Saturday. He worked in a root canal.

“Had it done this morning,” Kernan said Tuesday.

Diede, Kosta Hoffman, Willis, Gage Brink (.hitting .438), super senior O’Connell (.421) Joe Schlegel are all holdovers from a squad that went 35-22 a year ago, including a 1-2 mark at state.

“I knew as soon as I was done last year that I wanted to come back,” Kernan said. “We can’t leave it with how we finished last year. “You want to come back and have at least one more chance.

“We can be right there. It’s just having that confidence of getting it done while we’re here in Great Falls. I think we can, for sure.”