Photo by Samantha Davis. Minneota's Carson Javers throws the ball in from shortstop during a Camden Conference game against Lakeview Tuesday evening. The Vikings defeated the Lakers 18-1 in five innings.

MINNEOTA — Minneota’s prompt and contagious offense of 20 hits was too much for Lakeview to stop Tuesday evening in a Camden Conference game as the Vikings cruised to an 18-1 victory in five innings, marking three straight wins.

“It was one of those games where I think everybody gets on a roll, and no one wants to get that first out or that last out … They do a lot of work in practice, and they do a lot of work on their own,” Minneota head coach Keven Larson said. “We took advantage of a couple of throws they [Lakeview] had too, as far as taking an extra base here and there. Our base running, I thought, we did a good job with that, too.”

The Vikings got the bats started from the jump, scoring two runs in their first at-bat, followed by a six-run second inning and dominant 10-run fourth inning to put the game into mercy-rule territory. The Lakers brought in their single run in the third inning.

“Their [Minneota’s] offense is very good, I think they got a lot of good hitters. Historically this year, we’ve had one bad inning … This game, we had two bad innings,” Lakeview head coach Curt Schake said. “There comes a time where you just have to put this game behind you and look forward to the next game, which we will.”

Kellen Bradley pitched the first three innings for Minneota, while Carson Javers relieved for the final two.

Bradley finished with five strikeouts and three walks while allowing two hits, and Javers threw for one strikeout and a walk with no hits.

“We had it set up where those two guys, or maybe even another person if we needed to play a couple innings, we’re going to throw today, and they did a great job,” Larson said. “We just expect the same thing, throw a lot of strikes and mix your pitches up, and they did. Both of them did a great job.”

For Lakeview, Braylon Breyfogle was on the mound for the first 3 1/3 innings, and Gage Dimmick from the junior varsity squad came in as relief in the fourth inning.

Breyfogle finished with three strikeouts and two walks, allowing 18 hits and 12 earned runs. Dimmick tallied one strikeout and one walk with one earned run.

The Vikings collectively finished with two errors, while Lakeview recorded five errors and just two hits.

Minneota’s six-run second inning came from capitalizing off Lakeview errors while continuing to make contact at the plate to keep runners on base.

The Vikings got the bases loaded with Joey Lacek on first, Destin Fier on second and Kyson Arndt on third after a walk, bunt and single line drive to center field, respectively.

Parker Bradley was hit by a pitch to force Arndt home, followed up with a sacrifice fly out to right field from Brody Larson to score Fier after tagging third.

Minneota continued to keep bases occupied, and Ryan Meagher, Eli Gruenes, Javers and Adam Dalager all accounted for hits in the second inning to put the Vikings up 8-0 before Breyfogle struck out Fier for the final out.

Javers went 4 for 4 at the plate, and led the Vikings with a game-high five RBIs. Arndt, Meagher and Gruenes followed each with three hits, while Gruenes also had a trio of RBIs.

Lakeview collected a few hits and got on the board in the top of the third inning with Dylan Caron scoring off a Dakota Cowell double infield line drive, coming from a Minneota overthrow to first error. Caron initially got on base with a walk.

Logan Herrick and Breyfogle shared the two hits for the Lakers.

Yet, Minneota put an end to any momentum Lakeview attempted to get started to return to offense.

Breyfogle pitched a quick third inning, forcing three quick outs between a strikeout and a pair of pop fly catches.

“Braylon started off a little rough, had a tough time, but he had that three-pitch inning, which I’ve never witnessed before in my life,” Schake said. “It’s not like he had a bad day, but it seemed like when he needed the defensive help, we didn’t get it to get out of certain innings, and then it just started to topple on us at that point.”

Minneota ultimately put the game away in the bottom of the fourth with its 10 runs, again going through its entire batting lineup and gave an opportunity to a few junior varsity batters to step up to the plate as well.

“Everybody was together as a group and as a team, and that’s what it’s all about, too,” Larson said. “When they [JV players] get a chance to get there and hit … The older guys are going to be excited for them, because they don’t get as many at-bats and that type of thing. Just being excited because they got in there and they put the ball [into play], and they did what they needed to.”

A Javers’ double line drive to left field got the first run of the rally started with an RBI, running in Quinton Anderson, who was courtesy for Meagher.

Meagher was the first at-bat, hitting a line drive to left field to get on base and stole second base during the next pitch.

The day’s largest hit came from a Gruenes triple to deep left field, again running in Anderson, who initially hit a single RBI.

Arndt also hit a double line drive toward the end of the inning to left field, while Dalager, Fier and Creed Stassen each recorded singles as well.

Minneota (7-3) will next travel to take on Murray County Central on Friday (7-1) at 4:30 p.m.

“We have Slayton on Friday, and then we have a couple of teams we don’t normally play. We play Madelia and Redwood Valley on Saturday, three teams in a row that are typically pretty solid, and they had good seasons,” Larson said. “We’ll have to play really good baseball game on Friday and Saturday to compete … We really look forward to the challenge.”

Lakeview (0-7) will look for a win when it continues its road trip to Lac qui Parle Valley on Thursday in Madison with a 5 p.m. first pitch.

“We just hope to improve. Take small victories, meaning one inning at a time, one at-bat at a time and one play at a time,” Schake said. “That’s how we got to look at it, and not think about the scoreboard all the time and put too much pressure on ourselves.”