Baseball: Lodi tops DeForest

Carter Meyers couldn’t stay off the basepaths.

In an 8-5 loss to Lodi on Saturday, Meyers reached base in all four plate appearances and had an RBI, but it wasn’t enough to propel the DeForest baseball team to victory.

Early on, the Norskies took a 3-2 lead in the first inning, but the Blue Devils tied it up in third and went up 5-3 in their half of the fourth. However, DeForest knotted it back up in the bottom of the fourth. Lodi grabbed the lead for good with a run in the fifth and added two insurance runs in the seventh to get the win, despite being outhit 7-6 and committing three errors.

Leading the charge for Lodi, Dakota Franklin went 2-for-2 and scored three runs, with Paxton Krugman going 1-for-4 with three RBIs. Kaden Ballweg had one hit in two trips to the plate and drove in a run. Chase Stanek and Eli Schneider also drove in runs.

For DeForest, Otis Crawford went 2-for-4 and scored a run, as Cullen Kirchberg, Tucker Grundahl, Adam Carr and Eli Gavin all scored runs as well. Connor Giese and Nick Hermansen collected RBIs.

Stanek and Xander Jackson pitched for Lodi, combining for seven innings. Stanek tossed three scoreless innings of one-hit ball, while Jackson walked six and struck out two, allowing three earned runs and five total runs.

Mason Ladwig went four innings for DeForest, giving up five runs – only four were earned. He struck out one and walked three, while Gabe Reyes and Andrew Herfel combined for three innings, three runs – two were earned – and one walk and one strikeout.

The Norskies dropped to 4-11 overall, while Lodi improved to 10-7.