The Lakeland baseball team traveled to CCBC Essex today to face the Knights in non-league action. The Lakers found themselves a bit behind the Knights as it was Lakeland's first time outdoors this spring while the Knights have already played 3 games.  After the long trip, the Lakers dropped an 11-2 decision. Lakeland jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the 2nd inning to get the scoring started. Miguel Fuentes started the inning with a 1-out single. Consecutive walks to Josiah Cuesta and Parker LaGreca loaded the bases. Tony Hall then hit a ball that the Knights 2nd baseman couldn't handle bringing Fuentes home for the first run of the game. Following a Laker strikeout, Ray Cowen worked an RBI-walk to put the Lakers up 2-0. The Knights answered in the bottom of the second taking a 3-2 lead as they took advantage of a Lakeland error around a couple of hits. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, the Knights would score 4 more runs keyed by two more Laker errors to take a commanding lead that they would not relinquish.

Lakeland had 3 players collect hits as Miguel Fuentes, Kaleb Corrin, and Cody Crawford all singled. On the mound, Jackson Smith started and took the loss as he surrendered 6 runs on 8 hits in 2.1 innings. Aaron De Oleo Rivas relieved and pitched 2.1 innings allowing 3 runs on 3 hits. Lucas Nichols closed out the game firing 3.1 innings allowing 2 runs on 2 hits while striking out 5 batters.

Krause's Comments: "We knew this would be a tough game we have yet to be outside this spring and made a 6 hour bus drive to face a pretty good Essex team. Despite that, I did see some good things from our team. The energy was good and though we made a few mistakes, we also made some decent plays. If we make a couple more plays and execute a few pitches a bit better we are right in this game. I know we are capable of doing that. We'll keep working on our game and I'm looking for us to show continued growth as we get more outdoor experience."

Next Up: On Saturday (3/1) the Lakers will face Sussex County CC in a 2:30 game at CCBC Catonsville. The game is scheduled to be a single 9 inning game.