Photo by Samantha Davis. Tracy-Milroy-Balaton's second baseman Aiden Sanow throws the baseball to first baseman Connor Lanoue for an out during a prep baseball game Tuesday night in Tracy against Heron Lake-Okabena-Fulda. The Panthers fell to the Coyote's 3-2.

TRACY — In a defensively strong game that didn’t see a run until the fourth inning, the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton baseball team fell just short in a non-conference game to Heron Lake-Okabena-Fulda 3-2 in eight innings Tuesday night in its home opener. 

“When the sun is shining and you can play baseball outside, it’s hard to really complain about it,” TMB head coach James Fultz said. “The result wasn’t great, but being able to play a game in early April is a good thing.” 

HLOF held a 2-0 advantage with a run in each the fourth and sixth innings until Connor Lanoue stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run home run to tie the game up. The Panthers and Coyotes held one another scoreless over the seventh, until HLOF brought in the final run in the eighth to end the night. 

“Friday when we played Windom, the defense wasn’t as clean. Pitching-wise, we had a few walks, and I thought we’d clean that up pretty well today,” Fultz said. “The defense, I don’t think we had an error, and they didn’t either. So, pretty clean game all the way around for everybody.” 

Trevor Smith pitched the first five innings for TMB, allowing six hits, one run with a game-high eight strikeouts. Noah Knakmuhs pitched the final three innings, finishing with two hits, two runs and a trio of strikeouts. 

“Trevor and Noah, they threw well. They threw a lot of strikes, and forced them [HLOF] to beat us by hitting them,” Fultz said. “If you want to lose a game, it’s because the other team hit the ball more, instead of walking them and giving free bases. The result isn’t great, but you take it if they’re going to beat you by hitting the ball, instead of giving them everything for free.” 

For HLOF,  Kaiden Haberman pitched for five innings, allowing one hit and throwing four strikeouts. 

Lanoue and Taylor Squires had TMB’s two hits of the day, while Lanoue led with two RBIs.  

HLOF finished with its three runs on eight hits. 

The Panthers and Coyotes went back-and-forth through the first several innings, with both team’s defense holding strong.  

“I think our fight was awesome … There was no quit, I saw no quit, and that’s like the main thing to see,” Knakmuhs said. “It’s only the second game of the year, this is not going to count us out of playoffs or nothing. There’s a lot of season to go, there’s a lot of improvement to happen, and there’s a lot of growing as a team … I’m very excited for that.” 

HLOF got the day’s first run in the top of the fourth inning with a single line drive to center field from Brenton Erdmann, who also stole second base during the next batter. Erdmann came home off a double fly ball out to left field by Haberman. 

Smith was able to withhold any more runs with another two strikeouts to end the inning. 

TMB was held runless again in the bottom of the fourth, yet returned the favor to HLOF in the fifth. 

The Coyotes took a 2-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning with a home run over the left field fence on two outs. Knakmuhs, who relieved Smith on the mound, finished up the inning with a strikeout. 

Minutes later, a strong, crucial hit from Lanoue sent the ball over left field in the bottom of the sixth inning for a two-run homer with Smith on second base to tie the game up 2-2. 

“He’s [Lanoue] been putting in tons of work on his swing early in the year. When we started practice, something just didn’t feel right for him. About a week ago, he came back to practice and he felt better,” Fultz said. “His swings the first two games have been pretty darn good. He hasn’t made a ton of contact, but today, he got that contact and helped us out a lot in a big spot in the game. So, that hit was awesome.”

Smith originally got on base with a single to third base, and stole second during the next at-bat. The Panthers’ three outs came from two strikeouts and a groundout at first for HLOF to shorten TMB’s momentum. 

The game went to extra innings, both teams holding onto the tie. 

The Coyotes earned a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning with two outs after initially hitting a single pop fly to left field to get on base, followed up with stealing second and getting to third after a sacrifice fly from Gavin Bell. Knakmuhs struck out a batter for the final out. 

In the Panthers’ final at-bat, HLOF’s defense remained intact to catch a pop fly in center field, at shortstop and with a strikeout, to hand TMB the loss. 

TMB fell in its season opener on Friday also by a single run, 5-4, to Windom behind its four-run fourth inning. The Panthers brought in a pair of runs in both the top of the third and seventh innings, yet it wasn’t enough to complete the rally back.   

The Panthers had a successful 2024 campaign, finishing their season 14-7 overall, which came to an end with a 5-1 loss to Adrian/Ellsworth in the Section 3A South subsection first round. This year’s squad is led by seniors Knakmuhs, Alex Munson, Smith and Kevin Vasquez. 

“We got young team this year, I’d say. We graduated a lot of seniors last year, but I think it’s a good young team. We’ve always had success, like growing up with this team,” Knakmuhs said.  “We have a lot of talent, and we have a lot of improving to do, but I think all that is going to come together and we’re going to be a dang-good baseball team come playoff time.” 

TMB (0-2) will next look for its first win when it embarks on a three-game stretch, starting with hosting Lakeview (0-1) on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. at the Tracy diamond. 

“Lakeview Thursday, Slayton Friday and Adrian on Saturday,” Fultz said. “It’s a lot for early in the season, but hopefully it gets the guys into a rhythm and hopefully turns around for us.”