Clear Lake 11
Mason City 5
The summer sports season has begun as the Clear Lake Lion baseball team, under the direction of new head coach Tyler Brown, got the bats going against neighboring Mason City Monday night.
Historically, Mason City has won the last eight meetings between the two teams, with the Riverhawks owning a now 10-6 all-time record against the Lions.
Before Monday night’s big victory, the Lions last victory over Mason City came a decade before back in 2014.
The first two innings saw no runs, but in the bottom of the third, Mason City took a 1-0 lead.
A sac-fly in the top of the fourth put the Lions even but the resilient Riverhawks put one more run across in the bottom of the fourth on an Evan Miller home run.
The Lions answered back with two runs of their own as CJ Lester and Andrew Theiss were both able to score on wild pitches from the mound.
Continuing the back-and-forth, Mason City held onto its lead after scoring with an RBI double and wild pitch to lead 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth.
The Lions were able to catch a break in the fifth inning and take the lead following a pair of Riverhawk errors.
Things opened for the Lions more in the sixth when Luke Fuhrman smashed a three-run double to take a comfortable 11-4 lead on Mason City.
The Riverhawks struggled throughout the night with eight total errors and three in the seventh that saw the Lions climb ahead to put the game away.
On the mound for the Lions was Cayden Lester and Andrew Theiss.
Lester received the win, pitching three innings, allowing three runs on one hit, walking three and striking out six batters.
Theiss pitched four innings and allowed two runs on two hits with three walks and 10 batters struck out.
The Lion fielders comitted one error on the night and the Lion bats saw 32 at-bats and had six hits, five RBI and 11 total runs.
