Easton Stone hit two home runs and struck out 13 batters in 6.1 innings as the Rice Lake baseball team got a 4-2 win over Lakeland in Thursday's Division 2 regional quarterfinal game in Rice Lake.
Eighth-seeded Rice Lake (7-15) advances to play in Tuesday's regional semifinal at Medford against the top-seeded Raiders.
Stone hit a solo home run in the first inning and a two-run blast in the fifth in driving in three of the Warriors' four runs. He allowed just one hit and walked two on the mound. He reached his 100 pitches limit after a walk with one out in the seventh and Rice Lake up 4-0.
"He was a one-man wrecking crew," Rice Lake coach Steve Fisher said of Stone. "He’s always locked in, and especially when it comes the playoffs he has another level of intensity."
Kalvin Kelsey entered in relief with a runner on first and two outs away from the win. After a walk, the ninth-seeded Thunderbirds (9-11) got a base hit to plate their first run.
As the Thunderbirds began to threaten and put the tying runner on base, Fisher had a mound visit to help the team refocus.
"We just wanted to make sure the kids knew that [Lakeland] had to score a bunch, and we just had to make outs," Fisher said. "We can trade outs for runs. We had confidence in our pitchers to throw strikes."
Another base knock by Lakeland made it 4-2, but the Warriors got the second out on a leaping grab by first baseman Jack Larson. A hit batter did load the bases as the tying runner moved to second, but Rice Lake escaped the threat and sealed the win with a pickoff. Kelsey threw to Stone covering second base and he made a throw to third to Lucas Roux, who applied the tag.
"We try to simulate everything we can," Fisher said of the timely defense. "We practice pickoffs at second once a week. Jack’s a good ballplayer, and he made a leaping grab there. We couldn’t ask for more."
Rice Lake's other run had come in the sixth. Gavin Richter had a two-out single and he moved to third on a Thunderbird error. Richter then scored on a wild pitch that pushed the Warriors in front 4-0.
Stone had struck out the side twice and had nine punch outs as he had a no-hitter entering the sixth. Lakeland got a leadoff single for its first hit and then a walk and Warriors' error loaded the bases with one out. Stone buckled down and got two strikeouts on just seven pitches to escape the jam.
"I just tried to keep the ball down — to get the ball on the ground and out of the air for a sac fly," Stone said. "It ended up they couldn’t hit it and I got the strikeout."
Stone went 3 for 3 with three driven in and two runs scored on two home runs and single. Larson added a double, with Kelsey, Wyatt Kunesh and Richter adding to Rice Lake's seven hits.
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