WINSTED — The “L-Train” is the Laker Train, and you better hop on while there’s still room. It’s headed into the home stretch of the regular season with seven wins in its last eight games, and the HLWW baseball team is riding on the rails of its core values to a winning campaign. The Lakers took care of business against New London-Spicer in a doubleheader Tuesday, winning 7-1 and 12-0.
HLWW has hit a hot streak at the right time of year with three games left on the regular season slate, and the wins are substantial not only because of run production and solid pitching, but the point of playing the right way being driven home by the coaching staff — and players have bought all the way in.
“I think they’re definitely playing with more confidence. The purpose of this program is attitude, effort, excellence, energy and selflessness. We talk about having an approach at the plate, having an approach in the field and then letting your natural ability take over,” head coach Tyler Maher said. “During practices we coach, and during games we let them play. It lets them loosen up and just play the game they love.”
The Lakers made easy work of the Wildcats in game one, Noah Bush throwing six innings and giving up two hits. He wasn’t humming like past starts, throwing 102 pitches, but an off day for him is as good as anyone else’s best: he struck out 15 batters.
“Noah came out today and didn’t have his best stuff but ended up with 15 strikeouts,” Maher said. “Noah told the guys he’s going to throw it over the plate, just play defense behind me. And when he throws it over the plate, batters still miss it.”
Kyle Driver had a big game to lead an array of HLWW contributors on offense, driving in three runs. Steven Heber and Mason Macziewski added RBI as well. All but one batter in the lineup tallied a hit.
In game two, the pitching and defense was just as consistent. Bennett Paulson, as trusty a No. 2 starter as you could find in the area, threw three and two-thirds innings and allowed just one hit while striking out four. Aiden Debner finished the final four outs as the Lakers piled up runs to win 12-0 in five innings.
The offense came about in a combination of smart baserunning and plain old strong contact. Bush was 4-for-4 with two runs scored while Aidan Decker and Driver cleaned up the bases behind him, driving in a total of five runs between them. Bennett Anderson added two hits, two RBI and two runs scored. A crooked number in every inning helped shorten the game to five frames.
The balance of approaches that Maher mentioned was in full force against NL-S — and the last few games of the season before the playoffs begin will require the same focus. The Lakers will use every opportunity to fine-tune their product of talent and attention to core values.
“There was a big crowd at the D-C game (last week), so I told them, ‘this is what sections are’. From that day on, every game is a section game for us. Even when we were up 8-0 today, it’s still 0-0. How can we stay focused?” Maher said. “And that’s how we’re going to keep playing it. Our section lineup will come together, whoever’s playing well. These guys are locked in and pushing each other in practice.”
The “L-Train” has been more of a “W-Train” as of late. Maher, Bush, Driver and company are conducting an impressive finish to the season.
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Follow Jared Martinson on Twitter: @JaredNHR