The Lakeland Hawks baseball team finished their season in a tough district loss against Sandpoint, 11-10. The Hawks had some ups and downs and finished the season with a 3-22 record. 

After losing eleven seniors to graduation in 2020, Lakeland’s baseball program knew they had an uphill battle facing them in 2021. They had very few seniors playing compared to the year prior to this season and had to rely heavily on underclassmen, specifically the sophomore class. 

One of the high points for Lakeland during the season was when they secured their first victory against Canyon Ridge, who at the time was the third-ranked team in the state. 

They also won a game against rivals, Sandpoint, and a classic win against Timberlake in the final regular-season game. Although the record didn’t show it, Lakeland showed its future potential, which is sky-high. 

Although the offense was not where the coaches expected it to be, there were quite a few Lakeland players who had batting averages above average. 

The national batting average is .255 and 5 players on Lakeland exceeded that average, with a minimum of 20 at-bats required. Scott Pote led the team with a .350 batting average. Scotty Hocking came in second with a .325 batting average and also achieved nine runs batted in and 15 runs. Nick Nowell had a batting average of .283 with 14 runs batted in. Garrett Love had an average of .277 with 10 runs and eight runs batted in. Sam Pemberton hit .275 with 15 hits and 10 runs batted in. 

Gunner Vanderver led the team with two home runs. Cole Strietzel also went yard once. Strietzel was tied for the team lead in runs batted in with Nick Nowell. 

Coach Jason Bradbury is looking forward to the underclassmen getting older and hopes to compete for a district title next year.