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WELCOME TO THE HOME OF
SUPERIOR LAKERS BASEBALL est. 2004
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The Lakers were established in 2004 by Adam and Kyle Peterson. The Lakers are located at the tip of Lake Superior in Superior, Wisconsin. The team plays its league games in the Upper 13 League that comprises of the Bayside Vipers, Oulu Blue Jays, Ashland Merchants, Port Wing Boilers, Proctor Padres and the Ashland C&S Design. Many of the players in the league and many that make up the Lakers play at the colleges located in Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota such as the University of Minnesota-Duluth, University of Wisconsin-Superior, and the College of St. Scholastica. The Lakers have made the WBA Playoff appearances in 2004, 2005, and 2006 which was their first and only WBA State Tournament appearance. The Lakers were Upper 13 League Champions in 2005 and Runners-Up in 2004 & 2006. The Lakers play their home games at Fichtner Memorial Complex in Hermantown, MN.
2009 - A STEPPING STONE TO THE FUTURE OF THE SUPERIOR LAKERS
~ The Superior Lakers of 2009 went under the radar as most didn’t even know who the hell their players were, including the manager. The Lakers only had 3 players on their roster that played for the original team in 2004 and brought in 11 new players to refresh their roster and bring the Lakers back to form and that they did.
The Lakers started their season earlier than in most years matching up with the newly formed, University of Minnesota-Duluth Club Team for a 3 game series. The Lakers were not at full strength for this series but it would be a good match for them to get their season underway. The Lakers lost the series 2 to 1 but both of their losses came in the last innings with blown saves. The Lakers then would kick of their Upper 13 League schedule with the Ashland Merchants, playing at their new home, the Fitchner Memorial Complex in Hermantown, MN. The Lakers defeated the playoff bound Merchants 8-4 to get off on the right foot. The next game the Lakers would match up with one of their long standing rivalries, the Bayside Vipers. The games in the past have always been hard fought and great match ups but that would be an understatement for the 15 inning marathon that seemed like it would never end. Well the Lakers finally plated a run in the 15th to get the “W” and get off to a 2-0 start in the Upper 13 League. The Lakers took on the Proctor Padres next and it was no let down game. The Lakers stomped the Padres 11-3 in front of their home crowd of 11 people. The Lakers took to the road for the next game as they traveled up to Grand Rapids for their 1st annual high school graduation game. The Lakers played flat and were never in the game as they were defeated 5-1 in their first night game. The Lakers next game would be out in Oulu and they would lose out in Oulu as they usually do. The score 3-1 as the Lakers could not muster up enough offense to balance out a great pitching performance.
As I said before, even the manager was unsure of these new guys as they had not quite “jelled” yet. The perfect weekend was coming up as they were headed into the “Hull Rust Invitational Tournament” in Hibbing, MN for the 2nd year in a row at the record of 4-4 so it was either sink or swim time for the Lakers season. The 2008 Lakers placed 2nd in this tournament and they were just flat out, not that good, so anything less would not be accepted.
The Lakers first game on Friday night was set up for a 9pm start time against the home team, the Hibbing Miners, but before this could happen mother nature came to play. The Lakers were dumped on for about an hour straight that would push their game back until the next morning at 9am. Well if this was college ball, the Lakers would’ve had a curfew and got a good 8 hours of sleep….lucky this isn’t college ball. The Lakers went to bed at about 4 - 5am just in time to get a couple hour napper. Well the Lakers played the first game like they were still sleeping/drunk as they fell behind 6-2 after committing 5 errors in one inning of play. This didn’t stop the Lakers as they were still unsure of what the hell was going on as they stormed back to win the game in walk off fashion 7-6 to put them in the winners bracket. The Lakers next game would be against the same team they lost to the year before in the championship game, the Metro Merchants. Not only was it the same team, but it was the same damn gigantic pitcher that tossed a 60mph curveball. Well this game started the same exact way that it did the year prior. The Lakers fell behind 4-0 after only 2 innings of play. The Lakers chipped away finally but still found themselves down 5-3 headed to the last inning of play. The Lakers had 5 hits and 1 walk in the last inning and found themselves with their 2nd walk off win on the day that put themselves in the championship game on Sunday. But first, Grandma’s Marathon… the Lakers all headed back to town to take part of the celebration for all the Kenyan’s winning our marathon which makes the next score a bit surprising. The Lakers won the Hull Rust Tournament after beating the snot out of the Itasca Indians(Grand Rapids) 9-1.
Most believe this tournament was some of the most fun playing ball they’ve had in awhile and the jumpstart to the 2009 Superior Lakers as they went 11-2 in the next 13 games following the loss to Oulu, in Oulu. Those wins included another thrashing to the Proctor Padres 12-1, then a surprising shutout 3-0 over the Duluth Xpress at Ordean Field. The Lakers would then meet a team even hotter then themselves, the Bayside Vipers as they lost 9-4 and at this point of the season, this loss put the Vipers in control of their own destiny with the Upper 13 League title and just left the Lakers to take care of their own business and get into the playoffs. The Lakers rattled off 6 consecutive wins to end their Upper 13 League season as they beat up the Ashland Merchants 17-10, the Port Wing Boilers 4-2 and 13-5, the Ashland C&S Design 2-1 and 14-9.
The Lakers now 9-2 in Upper 13 League play had done what they needed to do to get into the WBA playoffs but with the Vipers stumbling and bumbling down the stretch, it set up an Upper 13 League Title game with the Oulu Blue Jays at home in Hermantown. Now, since the league really does not have a championship game, they must go by tie breakers. So since they Lakers lost by 2 runs earlier in the season to the Blue Jays, the Lakers had to win the game by 3 runs to win the league outright, win by 2 to tie for the league and if they win by 1 they would take 2nd place, and if they lost they would’ve finished 3rd. Well the Lakers took a 3-1lead into the last inning but gave up 1 run to lose the Upper 13 League crown and finished in 2nd place.
The Lakers would get a 2 seed in the Wisconsin Baseball Association playoffs and face off against the Independent Leagues, the Brill Millers. The Lakers fell behind 4-0 before a bench clearing “argument” sparked the Lakers to start playing some ball. The Lakers battled back and it seemed as though one of those last innings wins was in the making for the Lakers, like the Hull Rust Tournament, but they fell one run short losing 5-4 and their season ended in Carson Park in Eau Claire, WI.
The Lakers finished their season with a 15-7 overall record and 10-2 in the Upper 13 League that placed them in 2nd place for the 3rd time in 6 seasons. The Lakers will look to this season as a hopeful building block for an even deeper playoff run in the upcoming 2010 season. A few questions are already swirling in the off-season as they Lakers might be looking to move into the Minnesota Baseball Association to take on a new adventure. Also the “Favre-watch” will be on with old players like Brandon Hansen, Kyle Peterson and Ryan Hendry but it will also be exciting to see who the Lakers will bring new to their roster in 2010.
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