Lakeville North Panthers Blanked In Baseball Season Opener

It was a hot and cold season opener.

Burnsville High's Blaze were red hot to open the season. The Lakeville North Panthers were cold, especially at the plate where they collected just two hits

The result was that Burnsville, the Class AAA baseball runner-up last season, started the 2011 campaign off with a bang, dusting Lakeville North 10-0 in seven innings in the season opener for both teams Thursday at Lakeville.

Tyler Brekke had a double and Austin Streit a single, but that was it for the Panthers.

Bursnville pitcher Brian VanderWoude pitched five no-hit innings, struck out eight and walked just two. VanderWoude also benefited from solid defense behind him by the Blaze.

"It's the first game of the year," said Lakeville North coach Tony Market. "One game certainly can define you if you let it. But it certainly shouldn't define what kind of season you're going to have. What's important is that you build upon what you've done. and that you file away the things that were positive to yourself and you look at the things that were negative  for a little bit and you put those in a file and you work on them when you get a chance to practive again.

"I thought that A.J. Moore came in and did a nice job," Market added. "He got a little loose and a little wild at the end. But to come in and hit his pitch count, 65 pitches. And I thought he did a nice job of coming in and controlling the game. And we made some plays behind him to get him out of some jams that hopefully down the road we don't get into."

The Panthers will try and bounce back Friday as they travel to Bloomington Jefferson.