Hjort blasts a bomb and three doubles as Bobcats beat Athletics

The Burnsville Bobcats appear to have picked up steam after their 3-2 win over Cannon Valley League-leading Savage on Thursday night.

On a sun-soaked afternoon at Lakeville South High School yesterday, the Bobcats hammered the host Athletics by a 10-1 score.

Second baseman Roddy Hjort went 4-for-4 with a home run, three doubles, four runs and four RBI while Trevor O’Shaughessy went the distance on the mound for Burnsville, who improved to 13-6 overall and 11-4 in the Cannon Valley.

Lakeville - who defeated Northfield 9-1 the night before - stumbled to 4-11 in the CVL and 8-14 overall.

Ace pitcher Jake Hauck started the game for Lakeville, but it would be a rough day for the righthander as Burnsville struck early.

Scott Lindner led off the first with a walk, then stole second. Matt Trocke followed with a bunt single that Hauck fielded but threw wildly toward first. Lindner came around to score on the play as just two batters into the game Burnsville drew first blood.

With Trocke on second, Hjort drove a 0-1 Hauck offering deep to left. The line drive dented the left field fence just a foot or two shy of a homer as Hjort pulled up at second for an RBI double.

Hauck was able to strand Hjort to keep the score at 2-0 after the first inning, then he pitched a perfect second before the Bobcats’ bats got to him again in the third.

Trocke led off with a single to right and up came Hjort. Down 2-0 in the count, Hauck fought back with two strikes to even the count. Hjort stayed alive by fighting off two tough pitches for fouls. Then, after a ball loaded the count, Hjort socked a line drive deep to left-center to score Trocke for a 3-0 Bobcats lead.

Down 4-0, Lakeville looked as if it had a possible threat in the fourth. Jon Gaylord began the inning with a routine grounder to short, but the Athletics were given a break as Burnsville shortstop Trocke sailed a throw high past his first baseman. However, the brief threat was quickly stymied as the next batter hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

Burnsville added a run in the fifth, then really padded its lead in the sixth as Hjort came up to face Hauck for the fourth time.

With Hjort having bashed doubles in each of his first three at-bats, Hauck seemed determined to retire the Bobcats slugger this time. It was not to be, however, as Hjort blasted deep shot well above leftfielder Eric Watts’ head for a two-run homer to give his team an 8-0 advantage.

As Hjort delivered the offensive damage, Burnsville’s pitcher, O’Shaughnessy, was blanking the Lakeville bats through five. Then, in the sixth, the Athletics would finally break through against Burnsville’s lanky lefthander.

Lakeville’s speedy shortstop, Derek Jacobson, led off the inning by smashing a line drive double off O’Shaughnessy. Burnsville leftfielder Eric Fabry quickly got to the ball and fired to second, but Jacobson was able to pull up unscathed. Three batters later, Trent Larson’s fly ball to right would score Lakeville’s spunky shortstop for their team’s first run.

Derek Hahn followed Larson’s sacrifice with a single, but O’Shaughnessy regained control from there, retiring seven of the next eight Athletics batters.

Burnsville tacked on a pair of runs in the eighth. With Derek Hahn pitching, Trocke drove in a run on a sacrifice fly. Then, after Hahn walked Hjort, Bobcats manager / first baseman, Robby Wiens, crushed a double just to the right of centerfielder Jon Gaylord to score Hjort and raise Burnsville’s run total to ten.

The Athletics mounted another brief threat in the ninth as Derek Hahn came up with his second hit of the game and Justin Hahn followed with a double two batters later. However, with one out and the Hahns occupying second and third, Watts hit a tapper to the pitcher for the second out, then O’Shaughnessy struck out Will Walsh to conclude his complete game effort.

Burnsville's next game will be against the Rosemount Black Sox on its home field at Alimagnet Park. Lakeville will hope to bounce back from the loss when it hosts the Eagan Bandits today at 5:00 p.m. at Lakeville South High School.


Notable individual efforts:
Burnsville Bobcats

~ Roddy Hjort: 4-for-4, HR, 3 2Bs, BB, 4 Rs, 4 RBI
~ Trevor O’Shaughnessy: CG, 9 IP, 1 ER, 9 H, 4 Ks, 0 BBs
~ Matt Trocke: 3-for-4, 3 Rs, 2 RBI
~ Scott Lindner: 2-for-4, BB, 3 SBs, 3 Rs
~ Robby Wiens: 2-for-5, 2 2Bs, RBI

Lakeville Athletics
~ Derek Jacobson: 3-for-4, 2 2Bs, R
~ Derek Hahn: 2-for-4, OBE, SB
~ Trent Larson: 0-for-3 w/ Sac Fly but he was tremendous defensively at third base - errorless for the game w/ three outstanding plays in particular.
5th inning, 1 out, runner on second - Larson charged in on a Luke Hellquist chopper and gunned over first for the out.
5th inning, 2 outs, runner on first - Larson made a diving stab of a hard Zach Ryberg grounder and fired a pea to first to nail him by a step.
9th inning, 2 out, runner on first - Larson, the Gold Glover of the day, picked up his pitcher - Derek Hahn - as a dribbler bounced through Hahn’s legs but Trent came over, gobbled up the ball and quickly threw to first to retire the batter.

**Note: I was the PA for this game, thus was unable to take nice game photos - being stuck in a press box behind the backstop - but I did take some photos of the game’s star players (Roddy Hjort, Trevor O'Shaughnessy and Derek Jacobson) afterward. No interviews were made as my primary focus was as a PA not reporter.