Photo by Jake McNeill: Canby first baseman Jaxon Groenhoff makes the grab at first during a Camden Conference baseball game against Tracy-Milroy-Balaton at TMB High School in Tracy on Friday. The Lancers came from behind to claim a 9-7 extra-innings win over the Panthers.

TRACY — For the second time in as many days, the Canby baseball team claimed a last-inning win. Just a day after scoring in the top of the seventh to beat Lakeview 5-4, the Lancers took on Tracy-Milroy-Balaton for a Camden Conference matchup in Tracy. While the Panthers scored a run in the sixth and seventh frames to force extra innings, the Lancers scored a pair of their own in the top of the eighth to claim a 9-7 win.

“Just stay positive. We’re always trying to cheer on our teammates all the time so that way, when we go up to play, we have the same attitude to attack the ball and force plays to happen. When you put the ball in play, good things happen,” Canby second baseman and pitcher Cash Antony said of the team’s mentality heading into clutch situations. “They’re fun stories to tell when we’re older, and it’s a lot of fun to be able to pull out the win in extra innings, especially the way we do.”

Ty Rangaard and Eli Greenman started the bottom of the eighth with consecutive singles, but back-to-back fielder’s choices left Cody Stoll and Antony on first and second with two outs. Jace Sigler fell behind 0-2 in the count in the next at-bat, but held off of three straight balls for a full count before hitting the pay-off pitch into right field for a go-ahead RBI single.

A pair of walks to Will Abrahamson and Jace Rangaard then forced in another run for a 9-7 Lancer advantage.

“We’ve never given up, even in some of the games where we get down big early,” Canby head coach Nick Kockelman said. “We always answer back and score some runs and keep competing. I think the way play baseball, if we can get on base, we can score runs and stay in games. That’s a really good team, so that’s a big win for us.”

Kockelman cited the team’s even-keeled nature as a key factor in its ability to perform in close games, saying that the Lancers never get too down on themselves or change their approach if things aren’t going their way.

Noah Knakmuhs doubled with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to bring the tying run to the plate, but a ground out to third ended the game in favor of the Lancers.

Canby led 7-6 heading into the sixth, but Taylor Squires reached on an error before scoring on a Knakmuhs double in the sixth, and David Schuh was hit by a pitch, stole second and third, and scored when Kevin Vasquez reached on an error to tie the game at seven runs apiece.

Antony pitched three innings of relief to earn the win for Canby, giving up one earned and one unearned run on three hits with three strikeouts.

“I was just trying to pitch to contact because I know my defense has got my back behind me,” Antony said. “I was just going out there to throw strikes and let my defense do the work.”

Canby committed just one error in the game while TMB committed five. The Lancers’ defensive consistency, Kockelman said, is something the team continues to pride itself on.

“I feel confident with those guys. We’ve been pretty good defensively most of the year. A few innings have gotten away from us, but the last two innings, that’s what won the game for us,” Kockelman said.

Greenman pitched the first five innings for Canby, surrendering five earned runs on seven hits and four walks.

TMB got off to a hot start when Squires singled and Connor Lanoue and Trevor Smith walked to load the bases with no outs in the top of the first. Knakmuhs singled in Squires, Lanoue scored on a passed ball and Schuh singled in Smith for a 3-0 lead for the Panthers.

Knakmuhs tallied a game-high three hits with two RBIs for the Lancers, while Jackson Kruse also drove in a pair of runs on two singles. Jace Sigler and Greenman each singled twice for Canby, with Greenman also drawing a walk while Abrahamson drew two walks and came up with a single.

Canby surged ahead by capitalizing on TMB errors in the top of the third. Ty Rangaard walked, stole second and third and scored on an Antony single to put Canby on the scoreboard. Another pair of errors allowed Stoll and Sigler to reach base while scoring Antony and an RBI single from Abrahamson drove in Stoll for the tying run. A wild pitch then allowed Sigler to score the go-ahead run.

“We’ve just got to clean up a lot of the stuff that’s been losing us games, with the defense, cleaning up the walks, stuff like that,” TMB head coach James Fultz said. “Hopefully our offense stays as hot as it’s been, and that translates, but we’ve got to rely on our defense and pitching and today that wasn’t our strong point.”

Smith singled and scored on a Schuh single to tie the game for the Panthers in the bottom of the frame, and Vasquez singled before scoring on a wild pitch to give TMB the lead back. Yet, Stoll and Sigler singled consecutively before a wild pitch scored Stoll, and a pair of RBI singles from Morgen Tol and Greenman gave the Lancers a 7-5 lead.

Smith took the loss on the hill in a relief appearance for the Panthers, giving up a pair of earned runs on six hits and two walks over four innings. He also struck out five batters.

Alex Munson started on the mound for TMB, giving up four earned and three unearned runs on four hits and three walks over four frames.

Canby improves to 4-6 on the year after picking up its second consecutive win. The Lancers will look to keep the momentum rolling when they take on Yellow Medicine East (7-4) in Granite Falls on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

Tracy-Milroy-Balaton falls to 8-7 with the loss and will aim to bounce back when it goes on the road to face Minneota (10-5) on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.

“You’ve got to learn from this. A handful of our wins, I would say, we’ve been on the other side of having a lead and then the other team comes back,” Fultz said. “Wabasso the other night and this one tonight, we had to come back and we got close both games. Didn’t get the result, but the kids are learning from it. Like I was just telling my group, we don’t really want to peak right now, we want to peak, plan-wise, Memorial Day weekend. We can always get better and hopefully everything comes together on the weekend of Super Saturday.”