Jacob Warnke (Photo by Noah Clooten)
The Lake Region State College baseball team’s season came to an end with a pair of losses against Miles Community College on Saturday in Miles City, Montana. It was the first round of the Mon-Dak playoffs.
The Royals needed two wins to advance and one win to play a decisive game on Sunday. They lost 11-2 and 6-2.
LRSC, which won a program-record 11 conference games during the regular games, finished with an overall record of 14-33. That’s the second-most total wins the program has recorded in a season. The Royals’ baseball team has still never won a playoff series in its roughly decade-long history.
The Pioneers (37-15, 18-6) scored seven runs in the first three innings of the first game. They walked it off with a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to win by nine with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
Parker Simon, the reigning Mon-Dak Pitcher of the Week, gave up five runs in 1 2/3 innings after the Royals scored two in the first inning on a single by Hugh Montgomery.
Simon Beach provided some durability out of the bullpen in what turned out to be his last official performance in a baseball game. He allowed three runs in 4 1/3 innings with three hits, three walks and a strikeout.
Carson Beaudin allowed the three-run homer that sealed the deal. The LRSC offense only had four hits, all singles.
Facing elimination, the Royals went to ace Dane Hagler. He stuck it out in a complete-game loss, which went all nine innings this time.
He was solid through six innings against a tough MCC team, allowing three runs in six innings with nine strikeouts.
LRSC took until the seventh inning to score its first run of the game, with a pair of productive bunts from Dayton Christensen and Jacob Warnke. Hagler stayed out there for the bottom of the seventh and grinded through a three-run inning that deepened the Royals’ deficit to 5-1.
LRSC didn’t go down just yet, getting one more back in the eighth after a leadoff single by Beau Brodina and a two-out RBI hit from Montgomery.
Hagler stayed out there for yet another inning. He struck out two in a perfect eighth. Overall, he allowed six runs (five earned) on nine hits while striking out 11 and walking three. It was an up-and-down outing against a quality team, but the most impressive aspect was Hagler’s ability to wear it out for 127 pitches (84 strikes).
The Royals’ offense went down 1-2-3 in the ninth.
The LRSC careers of Beach, Montgomery, Warnke, Tyler Kleinjan, Brayden Ehnert and Lane Kinsella came to an end with the losses. Montgomery and Kleinjan will be continuing their baseball careers for Mayville State University next year.
The Royals have a whopping 16 freshmen on the roster who are all eligible to come back for another year. First-year head coach Steve Anderson has already been diving deep into the recruiting trail as well. He helped the program to its most successful season yet, but has made clear that his work is far from done.
