By Tom Schardin, Staff Writer

The Burnsville baseball team found some offense to snap out of a two-game Lake Conference losing streak.

Forget about the 20 runs the Blaze scored in a non-conference win (20-0) over Minneapolis Roosevelt on April 22. Scoring runs and winning games in the tough Lake Conference is more a concern for the team.

Against Lake competition on April 23, the Blaze rolled to an 11-5 win over Eagan, getting three hits and four RBIs from Evan Walker.

Burnsville (3-4 overall, 2-4 in the Lake) was coming off to conference losses, 7-4 to Apple Valley on April 19 and 7-6 to Lakeville North on April 17.

Despite the 31 runs in back-to-back games, senior captain Anders Engberg said this year’s team isn’t like last year where heavy hitters were up and down the Blaze lineup en route to a 21-7 season.

“We don’t have that kind of power like we did last year,” said Engberg. “We have to make up for that with speed and moving runners along.”

Engberg earned his second win of the season against Eagan, pitching five innings and allowing four earned runs on nine hits, while striking out five.

Jacob Dahl pitched two innings of scoreless relief for the Blaze. He also made an impact at the plate, going two for two with an RBI.

Craig Simonson also had a productive day with the bat, going three for three with two runs scored and an RBI.

Burnsville scored five runs in the second inning to take a 5-1 lead. It added three more runs in the third for an 8-2 advantage.

John Means had a two-run double for the Blaze in the second. Simonson had an RBI double in the third inning, which was followed by Dahl’s RBI single.

Walker had a two-run single in a three-run fifth inning.

In the loss to Apple Valley, the Blaze allowed all seven runs to the Eagles in the second inning. Grant Larson took the loss, going 1 2/3 innings and allowing three hits and seven runs, while walking three.

Jack Lassonde pitched 4 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Burnsville had just five hits in the game, two from Zach Harazin. Dan Ellefson had a two-run single in the third inning.

Against Lakeville North, the Blaze rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 6-6. Simonson had the big blow, a three-run home run.

But Lakeville North won the game with a run in the eighth, which came off Dahl, who pitched four innings of relief and allowed four hits and two earned runs.

Danny Hanson started for the Blaze and went 3 1/3 innings, allowing three hits and five earned runs. Lakeville North scored six runs in the fourth inning to take a 6-1 lead.

Dylan Peterson went two for two and reached base all five times for the Blaze in the loss. The Blaze had 11 hits, two each from Engberg, Walker and Simonson. Ellefson, Walker and Means each had an RBI singles.

Burnsville will play host to Prior Lake on Friday, April  25 in a non-conference game at Alimagnet Fields at 4;15 p.m.