Lake Placid’s Vann Morrelli, a Keene student playing for Lake Placid, pitches during a game against Saranac Lake on April 22. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — After losing big on Friday night, the Saranac Lake baseball team wanted to bounce back in a big way. While it wasn’t a particularly dominant offensive game, the Red Storm did just enough to edge out the host Blue Bombers 9-7 on April 22.

Saranac Lake recorded just three hits in the game while showing solid plate discipline with 10 walks, one hit-by-pitch and two drop third strikes. Lake Placid had nine hits, while each spot in their lineup reached base at least once.

“Our bats are as silent as silent can be right now,” Saranac Lake head coach Bryan Munn said. “With our lineup, we should be hitting the ball and we’re not yet. We’re four games in, we had a few against AuSable, but I was surprised to see how silent our bats were (on Saturday).”

The matchup between the two squads was the first since 2021, when they both played in the Section VII Class C division. This season, Saranac Lake is a Class B team, playing in the Champlain Valley Athletic Conference while Lake Placid is a Class D school, playing in the Mountain and Valley Athletic Conference.

“I scheduled as many of the big schools as my schedule would allow because these kids are talented and they need to see that type of pitching and that type of play. The CVAC type of play,” Blue Bombers head coach Brian Brandes said.

Lake Placid’s Vann Morrelli, left, attempts to tag out Saranac Lake’s Brayden Munn (1) during a game in Lake Placid on April 22. Also pictured is Lake Placid’s Hyler Isham of Keene. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

Right away, it was clear that the Blue Bombers weren’t used to the speed of a Class B team as Saranac Lake surged out to a 9-2 lead through five innings, because of some miscues from the Blue Bombers.

However, in the bottom half of the fifth, Lake Placid caught fire, scoring five straight runs to bring the game within two.

With a runner on second, Lake Placid’s Owen Hayes hit a ground ball between the shortstop and third base into the outfield and it looked like the Blue Bombers were going to score again.

Saranac Lake’s left fielder Nick Munn picked up the ball and made a throw to home plate and where the catcher, Evan Willet, was able to tag out the Lake Placid runner.

“That was huge,” Munn said. “If he had scored there, it’s 9-8 and they’ve got the momentum and they’ve got runners on base. You never know.”

Adam Lewis earned the win, striking out five batters, while Jon Kratts came in relief in the fifth and earned two strikeouts. Brady Roberts and Brayden Munn were the lone Saranac Lake batters to record a hit. Roberts finished with two hits — a double and a single.

Lake Placid used a carousel of pitchers, which included Vann Morrelli, who started the game and finished with three strikeouts; PJ Colby, who came in the third inning and had six strikeouts in two innings; and Jarrett Mihill, who closed out the game with three strikeouts.

Colby and Jon Caito recorded two hits each for the Blue Bombers and Colby, Mihill and Foster Wood each had a double.

“Our kids made the adjustments at hitting. Then we started hitting the ball,” Brandes said. “Our pitching, other than throwing strikes more often. We let up two hits in the first game and only three this game. We’re there in terms of pitching. We still need to solidify the catching position.”

Despite falling for the first time this season, Brandes said he wasn’t unhappy with how his team played.

“It’s the second game season and you want to learn things in the second game of the season and I think we did,” he said.

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Lake Placid 13, Chazy 3

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The Lake Placid baseball team notched its second league victory of the season at home on April 25, after topping the Chazy Eagles 13-3 in five innings.

The Eagles got off to a hot start scoring, with three straight runs in the first inning. But after giving up those three runs, the Blue Bombers’ starting pitcher, Colby, found a groove and struck out five batters while giving up one hit and three walks the remainder of the game.

In the bottom half of the first, Lake Placid took the lead after four of their first five batters reached base and were eventually driven in. The Blue Bombers then extended their lead by scoring six more runs in the final four innings.

Mihill had a huge day at the plate, leading Lake Placid with three hits, all of which were singles. Colby, Morrelli, Jon Caito and Max Hyman each had two hits. Griffin Barney and Katie Coursen rounded out the Blue Bombers 13-hit performance with a hit apiece.

Parker Baker had the lone hit for the Eagles in the top of the second inning. Despite not coming away with a hit, Elijah Valentin reached base twice for Chazy because of a drop third strike and an error.

On the mound, Valentin and Kobe Hernandez combined for six strikeouts in the loss.

With the win, Lake Placid improved to 2-1 overall.