By Tom Schardin, Staff Writer

The Burnsville baseball team lost for the third time in the last four games on May 15, losing 11-6 to Chaska in a Lake Conference game.

The Blaze dropped to 9-9 overall witht the loss, 8-9 in the conference. It has one conference game left before the Section 3AAA playoffs start on May 23 - at home against Bloomington Jefferson on Monday, May 19 at 4:15 p.m.

Burnsville didn't face Chaska pitcher Chad Hand as originally thought. Hand is one of the top pitchers in the state at 5-0 with a 0.43 earned-run average.

So Burnsville was able to put some runs on the board. But the team gave up two big innings to Chaska which was the difference in the game. Chaska had a four-run second inning and five-run seventh that oppened up an 11-4 lead.

Junior Jacob Dahl led the Blaze at the plate going three for four with home run, double and five RBIs. However, he struggled on the mound in relief, allowing five earned runs on four hits in 1 1/3 innings of work.

Senior Anders Engberg took the loss on the mound, pitching five innings and allowing nine hits and six earned runs, while striking out five.