Truso's Dominance leads PL to 6-0 win over Shakopee

Truso's Dominance leads PL to 6-0 win over Shakopee

Pitching and defense wins games. It's an old adage that has been used by coaches since the great game of baseball was created sure came into play on Thursday night (6/12) at Schlepper Field in Shakopee.

Austin Truso led the way for Prior Lake with his great pitching performance on the mound. Austin went 6 innings allowing merely 3 hits while striking out 5. All of his pitches seemed to have a lot of movement and the Shakopee hitters never seemed to figure him out.

As for the offense, PL got things going early. Jonny Houston worked a walk to start things off as the Shakopee starter struggled to throw strikes to begin his outing. Matt Probst then drove in Houston a few pitches later with a double over the center fielder's head. Following a couple of flyouts, Tommy Keating was able to pick up his teammates and drive in Probst making it 2-0 after one inning.

Prior Lake added another run in the fourth inning to make it 3-0 behind a single from Joe Gutoske followed by 3 walks as Shakopee's pitching troubles continued.

The game was put out of reach in the fifth inning. The inning started with Keating reaching base following a fly ball that was dropped by the left fielder. Kyle Schmidt made the most of this blunder, sending a double into left center and driving in Keating. Schmidt then scored when Andrew Gabbard hit a fly ball to left that was also dropped by the left fielder. It was a rough night for him. Kyle Manderfeld then singled to left to drive in Gabbard and give PL the comfortable 6-0 lead that it never relinquished.

Gutoske worked a scoreless seventh inning on the mound to end the game.

Prior Lake will be back in action on Monday night (6/16) at Memorial Park at 7:30pm. Following that game, PL will be on the road on Tuesday night (6/17) at Eagan at 6pm and on Wednesday night (6/18) against Rosemount at Dakota County Technical College at 6pm.

Note: I will be out of town Monday and Tuesday so my next blog post will be following the Rosemount game on Wednesday.