Dane Hagler (Photo by Noah Clooten)
Lake Region State College baseball swept a doubleheader in Wahpeton over North Dakota State College of Science on Saturday.
The Royals (9-24, 5-12), after their Friday home games against NDSCS (8-20, 4-11) were postponed, took care of business on the road for their first doubleheader sweep of the season. They’ve already won more conference games this year (five) than they did last year (four), with a handful of games still yet to play. The victories also moved them into fifth place out of seven teams in the Mon-Dak Athletic Conference.
And a big reason they were successful Saturday was because of Cando native Dane Hagler, a late addition to the team this past winter.
Hagler shined with the bat in both games and on the mound in the second game. LRSC won a 9-8 battle in extra innings, then cruised to a 4-1 win behind a complete game from Hagler.
In the first game, a series of hits, free passes and an error put the Royals behind 3-1 after four innings. Their lone run at the time was courtesy of a Hugh Montgomery solo shot — his first of the season and second of his career.
In the fifth inning, after Lucas Lyons and Tyler Kleinjan reached on free passes, Hagler tied the game with a two-run double to right field. LRSC scored four in the frame, getting an RBI single from Brayden Ehnert to go ahead 5-3. It scored two more in the sixth — once again courtesy of Hagler, who hit a two-run single to put the Royals up by four.
LRSC right-hander Logan Enns was cruising through six innings. He’d only allowed the three-run second inning, and his team even added an insurance run in the seventh on a Logan Dearborn sacrifice fly to make it 8-3.
But Enns gave up three straight hits to start the bottom of the seventh. With one out, he surrendered a two-run double that made it 8-5. His day came to an end there, with southpaw Michael Lindsay in to try to clean up the mess.
Lindsay gave up a run-scoring single. He induced a pop-up to the shortstop, Hagler, for the second out, but NDSCS managed to tie the game on a two-run error by left fielder Leif Sigurdson. Lindsay was pulled after walking the next batter.
Karsen Simon, a fellow North Star alum of Hagler’s, came to the rescue. It took him three pitches to finally put the inning to rest and avoid a complete disaster, getting a popout to the catcher. The game went to an eighth inning, where Lyons drew a leadoff walk and it was yet again Hagler who had an RBI hit, putting the Royals ahead 9-8.
Hagler went 3-for-5 with five RBIs in the contest.
Simon stayed in and took care of the Wildcats in the bottom of the eighth. Two groundouts and a swinging strikeout ended the game, with LRSC narrowly victorious by a run.
In the second game, the Royals were fueled by seven innings of one-run ball from Hagler. He struck out six, walked only two and allowed seven hits.
It was Hagler’s first start since March 8, with some relief appearances sprinkled in. As the Royals’ most prized addition shortly before the season started, they’ve been careful managing his innings and keeping him fresh for the postseason. His first start of the year was an 11-run disaster against Dodge City Community College in the very first game of the season, but since then, he’s allowed just three runs in 16 innings of work.
Head coach Steve Anderson said before the season he was anticipating some big things from Hagler, and lately, it’s coming to fruition at the perfect time.
Hagler also went 2-for-3 with a walk in the 4-1 win. He’s now batting .309 with a .391 OBP on the season.
The lone run he gave up on Saturday came in the first inning. He walked the first batter he faced and surrendered a two-out, run-scoring single. He kept the Wildcats off the board after that, getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the third with a double play and a second-and-third, one-out jam in the fifth. The Royals committed four errors behind him that he managed to work around.
All four of LRSC’s runs were scored in the fourth inning. Ehnert hit a two-run shot to put the Royals ahead, for his second bomb of the year and third of his career. Dearborn doubled, then scored on a bunt and an error. Devils Lake native Beau Brodina added a sacrifice fly to achieve the 4-1 score that would eventually hold.
Hagler retired the final four batters he faced.
The Royals now return to Devils Lake for just their second set of home games on Monday. They’ll host last-place Dakota College at Bottineau (15-21, 3-13) at 1 and 3 p.m. at DLYA Field.
LRSC sits a game ahead of NDSCS now in the standings, though is still a hefty margin behind fourth-place Bismarck State College (24-17, 10-8).
