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Primed for the Playoffs

By Tom Schardin, 05/20/15, 12:30PM CDT

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The Prior Lake baseball team goes into the Section 3AAA tournament winning five of its last six games.

That helped the Lakers earned the No. 5 seed in the 12-team field. Prior Lake (9-11) will face 12th-seeded Park (3-17) in the single-elimination first round May 22 at home at 4 p.m.

The last time the Lakers and Wolfpack met in the playoffs Park ended Prior Lake's season with a 7-6 road win back in 2012.

The Lakers-Wolfpack winner will take on fourth-seeded Burnsville (12-8) in the quarterfinals May 26 at Alimagnet Fields at 4 p.m.

Meanwhile, Bloomington Jefferson earned the No. 1 seed in Section 3AAA and gets the winner of eighth-seeded Apple Valley (9-11) and ninth-seeded Simley (9-10) in the quarterfinals, while second-seeded Eastview (13-6) gets the winner of seventh-seeded Eagan (9-11) and 10th-seeded Rosemount (4-15). Third-seeded Lakeville North (13-7) faces the winner of sixth-seeded St. Thomas Academy (11-9) and 11th-seeded Bloomington Kennedy (7-11).

The semifinals are May 27 with the winners bracket final May 29. The title game is June 2. For complete brackets, go to www.mshsl.org. Lakeville North has won the last two section crowns.

Meanwhile, Prior Lake closed out the regular season May 18 with a 7-5 win at Eastview in South Suburban Conference play. The Lakers finished 9-8 in the SSC, which placed them fifth.

Prior Lake plated two runs in the top of the seventh to pull out the victory. Seniors Nick Vaage and Justin Lembeck had back-to-back RBI singles with one out.

Sophomore Lucas Pumper got the win in relief, working 2 1/3 innings and allowing two unearned runs, while fanning four. Junior Lawson Zenner started for the Lakers, going 4 2/3 inning and giving up three runs, while striking out four.

Junior Nick Hanson had a two-run homer for the Lakers. Vaage finished 2 for 2, while sophomore Jacob Hitz was 2 for 4 with a run scored. Senior Tommy Keating and junior Nick Raddatz each had RBIs.

Senior Taylor Widgen got the seventh-inning rally started with a leadoff single.

Prior Lake led 5-3 after four innings, before Eastview tied the game with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.