(Erie, Pa.) — The Lake Erie baseball team fell on the road at Mercyhurst Saturday, losing 8-7. The loss puts the Storm's record at 2-5 on the young year, while Mercyhurst improves to 5-1.

It was a back-and-forth battle all day, with neither team scoring more than a few times in a row before the other side would tack on a run of their own. Neither team saw a pitcher go longer than 2.2 innings, with the player to go that 2.2 innings being Lakers pitcher Michael Krauza, who ended the game for Mercyhurst and got the win. Additionally, no pitcher for either team allowed more than four hits or two walks.

Similar parallels occurred on offense, as neither side saw anyone register more than two hits, two RBI, or one walk. In fact, despite being on the losing end of things, if any hitting performances stood out, they were on the Storm side. Senior infielder Sam Browning was the only person to hit a home run in the game, sending a two-run shot over the left field fence in the seventh inning. Furthermore, Lake Erie had more players grab doubles and RBI than Mercyhurst.

But Mercyhurst exploded for four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, taking a 7-4 Storm lead and turning it into a one-run deficit. With only an inning to recover, the Lake Erie offense simply ran out of time to come back in this one. At the rate at which these two clubs were going, it likely would have been a coin flip to determine who would win if the game were played over again.

But alas, this will be the only time the Lakers and Storm face off in the 2021 regular season. But no matter how many times they would have played, these two green teams, who each reside off the coast of Lake Erie, surely would have continued the parallels far beyond Saturday.

Instead though, the Storm now prepare for a trip to Cedarville next week. With two games on Friday and two on Saturday, it'll be quite the way to ring in the start of G-MAC play.