Amateur Baseball

Brookings Cubs blow out Lake Norden Lakers in season opener

Staff reports
Posted 5/16/24

The Brookings Cubs opened the season with a dominant win on Wednesday night as they beat the Lake Norden Lakers 14-1 in eight innings at Bob Shelden Field.

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Amateur Baseball

Brookings Cubs blow out Lake Norden Lakers in season opener

Posted

BROOKINGS — The Brookings Cubs opened the season with a dominant win on Wednesday night as they beat the Lake Norden Lakers 14-1 in eight innings at Bob Shelden Field.

The first run of the game came in the top of the first when the Lakers scored on a sacrifice fly. It was all Cubs after that as they scored 14 straight to improve to 1-0.

Henry Hammrich walked to open the bottom of the first and then stole second and third. He would then make his way home on a single from Chase McDaniel to make it 1-1 heading into the second.

Neither team scored in the second but the Cubs then scored five runs in the third. Jakson Krogman and Justin Cofell led off the inning with back-to-back walks. Lukas Adelman then advanced Krogman to third with a fly out to left and Krogman scored on a sacrifice bunt from Hammrich.

McDaniel singled to score Cofell and Rhett Zelinsky then blasted the ball over the center field wall to make it 5-1. Parker Winghart and Noel Burgos followed that with back-to-back singles. Winghart scored on a Jake Brandner single and that made it 6-1 heading into the fourth.

Brookings added another run in the sixth. Burgos led off the inning with a single. He stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. A Tyler Kruetner ground out then sent Burgos home and made it 7-1 heading into the seventh.

The Cubs pushed the lead to 9-1 in the seventh. Joey McMacken walked with one out and Adelman was used as a courtesy runner for him. He scored on an error and Hammrich made his way to third after two errors on the play. McDaniel followed with a triple and that was his third RBI of the game.

However, he wasn’t done sending runners home as he came to the plate with the bases loaded in eighth after McMacken had already been walked home. McDaniel hit a fly ball to right field and it flew over the fence for a grand slam and that ended the game due to the 10-run rule.

McDaniel was 4-for-5 with seven RBIs. Brookings had six other hits. Zelinsky was 1-for-2 with two RBIs and Brandner was 1-for-4 with an RBI. Burgos was 2-for-3 and Winghart and Cofell were each 1-for-3. Kruetner, Hammrich and McMacken all had an RBI without a hit.

Jake Ammann got the start for the Cubs on opening night and he pitched five innings. He gave up one earned run on two hits with six strikeouts and four walks. Newcomer Zach Shastay pitched the final three innings and gave up no runs and no hits with six strikeouts.

The Cubs will host the Volga Cormorants at 5 p.m. on Sunday.