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Sports

Burnsville Wins Showdown Game Against Eastview

Blaze takes advantage of early Eastview pitching problems to gain a 6-0 advantage after two innings and takes an 8-4 decision in a key South Suburban Conference contest Thursday

In a battle of two South Suburban Conference baseball heavyweights, Eastview pitched itself into a quick, deep hole the Lightning couldn’t get out of.

Eastville junior starting pitcher Adam Moorse had a rare struggle with control problems in the second inning and Burnsville took advantage for a 6-0 lead after two innings en route to an 8-4 baseball win Thursday at Alimagnet Park.

“That was probably a lot of the ballgame right there,” said Eastview head coach Tom Strey. “Especially against a team like Burnsville. They’re a quality team. They’re going to throw quality pitchers at us; they’re not going to make mistakes in the field. And when we got in that big a hole it was tough to crawl out of. But what I liked was that our kids battled the whole way.”

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League-leading and third-ranked Burnsville improved to 12-2 in the conference and 14-3 overall. Tenth-ranked Eastview fell to 11-3 in the South Suburban Conference and 12-5 on the season.

“It was a very nice game,” said Burnsville head coach Mick Scholl.  “We’re starting to come together as a team. The last couple games we haven’t hit the ball very well. They gave us some runs today early and you know what, we capitalized on their mistakes.”

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The win by Burnsville evened the season series at 1-1. Eastview took a 5-4 decision on April 18. One never knows what might happen in baseball, but there’s certainly a chance these two teams will meet again in the section 3AAA play.

“We’ve always been battling with them ever since back when we were little kids and stuff,” Burnsville senior pitcher Quinn Johnson. “They’ve always been the team we’ve played hard against.”

On Thursday, Burnsville strung together its 6-0 start on a hit, two hit-batters, a wild pitch, two bases-loaded walks and a two-run single up the middle by Derek Johnson.  The Lightning played well the rest of the way but the damage had been done.

Eastview scored two in the third on a two-run double by Matt Larson to cut Burnsville lead to 6-2. The teams matched hits and runs the rest of the way.

“When they scored six we came back with two and had a chance to get two more if we would have gotten a hit,” said Strey. “And then they scored a couple of other times and every time they scored, we answered. So those are good signs.”

“We were very patient at the plate,” said Burnsville junior centerfielder Dan Motl. “We took good pitches and found the right pitches to swing at and put them in play.”

Burnsville touched three Eastview pitchers for eight hits.

“We played really good as a team,” added Burnsville’s Johnson. “Defensively we played really well. Hitting we did well. We were patient up at the plate.

Burnsville opens the final week of the regular season Monday with a game at Rosemount starting at 4:15 p.m.

“These kids played from the very first inning to the end,” added Scholl. “The temperature like this and we knew we were playing Eastview and it’s easy to get up for the game and they stayed but they stayed kind of even keeled.”

Eastview plays Bloomington Kennedy Monday at 4:15 p.m. at Haddox Field.

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