AA Lakers salvage split of opening twinbill
Carter Schlegel threw four innings of sharp relief and broke a 6-6 tie with an RBI single as the Kalispell AA Lakers beat Missoula 10-6 to earn a split of their season-opening doubleheader Sunday.
After the AA Mavericks took the opener 7-6, they came back from an early 5-2 deficit in the nightcap at Griffin Field before the Lakers (1-1) took command. Tanner Cockerill, who singled and moved up on a passed ball, scored the go-ahead run on Schlegel’s two-out base hit in the fifth inning.
A single by Luke Nikunen brought home Schlegel to make it 8-6; the Lakers tacked on two runs in the sixth inning via RBI single by Bryce Buckmaster and a passed ball.
Schlegel, who drove in two runs and scored twice, allowed frive hits, one walk and one earned run in his four innings on the hill. He fanned six.
In the opener, the Mavs had the bats going early; Easton Reimers’ RBI single put Missoula up 7-2 in the second inning.
Lefthander Jackson Heino came in to pitch for the Lakers in the fourth inning and threw well while his team rallied. They got three runs in the fifth inning — Missoula committed three errors, sandwiched around a double by Bryce Buckmaster — and another in the seventh.
Ostyn Brennan’s two-out RBI double cut the gap to 7-6 in the final inning, and Kaden Drish was hit by a pitch to put the go-ahead run on base. The Mavs then got a strikeout to end it.
First game
AA Mavs 430 000 0 - 7 8 6
AA Lakers 200 030 1 - 6 6 1
Chris Compton, Cole Truglio (5), Carter Taylor (7) and Rylan Davis. Andre Cephers, Jackson Heino (4) and Oscar Kallis.
MISSOULA AA MAVERICKS — Taylor 0-3, Colter Nicolarson 2-4, Sam Matosich 2-4, Easton Reimers 1-3, R.Davis 0-3, Henry Wilson 1-2, Brennan Labbe 1-3, Jace Bykari 1-3, Patrick Davis 0-3.
KALISPELL AA LAKERS — Ostyn Brennan 2-4, Kaden Drish 1-3, Carter Schlegel 1-5, Kallis 1-2, Luke Nikunen 0-3, Trever Cockerill 0-3, Bryce Buckmaster 1-3, MIchael Owens 0-4, Colin Leonard 0-3.
2B — Buckmaster, Brennan. 3B — Matosich. RBIs — Wilson 2, Matosich 2, Reimers, Labbe, Owens 2, Brennan, Schlegel, Kallis.
Second game
AA Mavs 230 100 0 - 6 8 0
AA Lakers 510 022 x - 10 15 4
Labbe, Matosich (3) and Truglio. Nikunen, Schlegel (4) and Brennan, Cephers.
AA MAVERICKS — Taylor 1-3, Nicolarson 2-3, Compton 1-3, Reimers 0-4, Truglio 1-4, Wilson 0-3, B. Ostrom 0-4, P. Davis 1-4, S Fairchild 1-2, Bykari 1-1.
AA LAKERS — Brennan 2-2, Cockerill 2-2, Drisch 2-5, Schlegel 2-4, Kallis 1-3, Nikunen 3-4, Hunter Fann 0-2, Cephers 1-4, Brysen Herion 0-3, Buckmaster 2-3.
2B — Nicolarson, Bykari, Brennan. 3B — Fairchild. RBIs — Compton 2, Fairchild, Schlegel 2, Brennan, Drish, Nikunen, Fann, Herion, Buckmaster.