Spirit Lake senior Tyler Dean and Harris-Lake Park senior Jake Ihnen found themselves locked in a pitcher’s dual Thursday night before the Indians broke through for a pair of runs in the sixth to secure a 2-0 win over the Wolves. Dean allowed just one hit on the night and finished with 14 strikeouts, including five straight to end the game. He also scored the game-winning run on Mitch Peschon’s sacrifice fly to right. As for Ihnen, he would surrender just one earned run on three hits, while striking out two. The Wolves finished with five errors in the game, including two in the sixth when Spirit Lake broke the scoring drought. Harris-Lake Park begins their season 0-1 and will play host to George-Little Rock on Friday. The Indians will take their 3-0 record to Hull next Wednesday to open conference play against Western Christian.
In other baseball action, Okoboji began Siouxland Conference play with loss at West Lyon. The Pioneers took an early 2-0 lead in the first thanks, in part, to a suicide squeeze by Brian Dubois. They would tack on a third run in the third on a RBI double off the bat of Michael Peterson. However the three runs is all they would get and in the end, West Lyon would take the game 13-3 in six innings. Okoboji is now 0-2 to start the season and 0-1 in league play. They travel to Alta this evening.
Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn opened their 2011 season with a road win at Sibley-Ocheyedan, beating the Generals 6-3. The Hawks host Gehlen Catholic on Friday.
Emmetsburg notched a non-conference win Thursday, shutting out Laurens-Marathon, 3-0. Ryan Kliegl powered through seven innings to limit the Chargers to just one hit. He also struck out thirteen batters and went 2-for-2 at the plate. Brady Berkland led the offensive charge with a home run for the E-Hawks.