Spring break has come and gone, and Lake Orion high school sports are back in full force.
Thanks to drastic improvements in the weather, the chance for sporting event cancellation has dropped significantly, and the coaches are ready to take advantage of the spring.
Baseball
Boys? Varsity Baseball came back in a flurry, with four games between April 5 and 9. Starting the surge of play was an away game at Livonia Stevenson, which saw the Dragons come away with their first loss of the season, 4-0.
Head Coach Andy Schramek said while the team’s pitching during the game was good, their batting needed work, with only three to four hits over nine innings.
The Dragons faced Flushing on Friday, and made up for their earlier loss with a 4-3 win. Junior Dalton Oveson pitched a very good game, with the team’s offensive capabilities truly showing, rounding out Lake Orion’s first win.
Despite the initial loss, the team is currently on a winning streak, taking home two more victories from an away game at Midland Dow High School. Sophomore Cody Campbell hit a double in the first game, which ended 7-2. The second game proved once again that pitching was the boys? strong suit, as the three pitchers managed to throw a one hitter, finishing the game, 1-0.
Schramek said the four games have been very telling about the team’s pitching, as nine different team members got to pitch, every one of them throwing a good game. Yet while defensively the Dragons are strong, Schramek noted their offense needs some work.
‘We’re going to stay working on our offense, trying to make more runs, and we really got to work on our base running,? said Schramek. ‘The weather has been pretty shoddy, and Thursday was the first day we were able to get on out field.
‘Practicing on other fields or indoors is just completely different than on a baseball field.?
The baseball team played again on Wednesday against Rochester Adams.
Boys Soccer
Meanwhile, on a neighboring field, Head Coach Ken Snage’s soccer team has been trying to make up for the loss of early non-league games which were cancelled due to the cold. In total, the team missed out on four games, which Snage said he usually plans to get experience to the newer varsity players.
‘Our league is very compromising, and that really shows in games like we had against North Farmington where you can play dead even for 73 minutes and still come away with a loss,? said Snage. ‘We missed three games from a tournament and one against Waterford-Kettering, and that’s huge, because I plan those games before the league so the newer kids can know what to expect from the other teams.
‘We’re doing well in all areas, but we can always do better, and right now we’re just trying to get all the kids on the same page, working together, and really just gelling.?
Snage added the real measurement of the team’s performance will come at the end of the year during playoffs. The team played again on Tuesday, and will play again on Thursday.
Girls Lacrosse
One team has been relatively unaffected by the weather, with only practice sessions lost to the chilly conditions. While the Girls? Lacrosse team has a record of 1-1, Coach Bill Booth said he’s happy with the team’s performance.
‘The first game we played, it was brutally cold out, but we played, though we did expect to fair better against Bloomfield,? said Booth. ‘We bounced back against Huron-Vally though, won a close game 9-8 against them, and we kind of used that game as a measuring stick for our program.
‘We started the program four years ago, and we’ve done progressively better against them.?
Booth said the next two games for the team – against University Liggett on Wednesday and Flint Powers on Friday, are going to be very challenging.
Wrapping up . . .
Other sports will also begin their post Spring break play, with softball playing a double header Wednesday against Adams, Girls? Tennis against Berkley on Tuesday and Harrison on Thursday, Boys? Lacrosse playing Tuesday against Adams and Wednesday against Heritage, and Boys? Track and Field running against Adams on Tuesday.