Photo by Jake Przytarski TMB’s Mariah Mayer swings at a pitch during their doubleheader against Lakeview on Thursday. The Panthers defeated the Lakers 10-4 in Game 1 and 15-0 in Game 2 to earn the sweep.

TRACY – The Tracy-Milroy-Balaton softball team extended its winning streak to three games on Thursday with a doubleheader sweep of Lakeview that featured a 10-4 win in Game 1 and a 15-0 (four innings) win in Game 2. Both run-totals are new season-high marks for the Panthers, who improve to .500 on the season with a 4-4 record through eight games.

In assessing the team’s effort, TMB coach Karl Campbell was especially impressed with their ability to generate offense after struggling in the batter’s box earlier in the season.

“We were putting a lot of pressure on them,” said Campbell. “We were putting the ball in play and we were hitting pretty well. Our small ball was working, we were getting bunts down and we were running the bases for the most part pretty good. Our defense was solid, and we were throwing a lot of strikes. Overall I was pretty darn pleased with it.”

For Lakers coach Tony Johnson, the performance of his team was disappointing after making great strides in their previous outing against Dawson-Boyd.

“(I’m) extremely disappointed because we had played so well last Thursday up in Dawson,” said Johnson. “We lose a game 4-3, we had one mistake, and gave up a couple of extra runs. We lose the second game 6-2, but we played really well and solid and we came here and I thought ‘Alright we’re really going to compete with these guys’ because they’re about our caliber of team and we just failed to show up.”

Game 1

After a scoreless first inning for both ballclubs, the Panthers found their rhythm in the batter’s box in the second and third frames to bring six runs across with multiple clutch hits. The offensive onslaught was highlighted by a pair of RBI hits by Jadyn Lessman and another by Page Anderson.

Out of the box and in the circle, Lessman followed her strong play offensively with a rock-solid outing as the starting pitcher for TMB, in which she went the distance and held the Lakers scoreless for five innings before giving up three in the sixth and one in the seventh.

Though the strikeout total for both TMB pitchers was low over the course of the two games, Campbell was very pleased with Lessman and Mady Swan’s efficiency and control in the circle.

“They’re throwing the ball over the plate, they’re pitching to contact for the most part,” said Campbell. “We’re not striking a lot of people out but they’re making the batters get in there and have to swing so we’re not issuing a lot of free passes. If we play solid defense, throw strikes and put pressure on the other team offensively, we’re going to have a chance every time out.”

The four Laker runs would come as a result of a two-RBI single from Trinity Kirckof, and an RBI single by Kiana Imes in the seventh inning. The strong finish for Lakeview was not enough, however, as the Panthers collected the final out to win 10-4.

Game 2

The final contest of the doubleheader was all Panthers as they immediately jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom half of the first inning, and kept the momentum going in the second with a seven-run frame to take a 10-0 lead after two. The scoring-spree was brought about through RBI hits by Brooklyn Ludeman and Mariah Mayer, while the rest came as a result of alert base running on the part of the Panthers.

According to Campbell, utilizing their team-speed to score runs plays to their strengths.

“That’s our style. I mean that’s really our style is to be able to create pressure with bunting wiht stealing bases,” said Campbell. “It makes them make plays. It puts a lot of pressure on the defense, especially at this level, and our girls buy into it and obviously it worked pretty well today.”

With a sizeable lead in hand, TMB starting pitcher Swan kept her foot on the gas to keep the Lakeview offense off-balance and unable to generate runs to catch up. Unfortunately for the Lakers, the Panthers would go on to add three more runs in the bottom of the third and two more in the fourth to end the game at 15-0.

TMB will be back in action today when they host Renville County West in another doubleheader beginning at 4:30 p.m. Looking ahead, Campbell is focused on cleaning up some errors on the basepaths.

“We have to learn from our mistakes. We had a couple mistakes that we’ve got to improve on,” said Campbell. “Like I said before, there was a couple of base running blunders that we need to fix because in tight games we can’t afford that.”

The Lakers will also be playing a doubleheader today as they are set to host Lac qui Parle Valley in search of their first win of the season. Johnson is hopeful that the pair of losses will inspire his team to play with more focus.

“(We need to) just stay focused and be alert,” said Johnson. “At times it just seemed like we were unsure where to throw the ball or anything defensively. We have Lac qui Parle today. They’re a quality ball club, so if we can’t figure it out a little bit between now and tomorrow mentally, it’s going to be a pretty ugly game. We’re going to do a lot of talking on the way home and see what we can figure out mentally.”