The Pacers needed this one.

The Lakeridge baseball team, facing Lake Oswego in the second game of its three-game Battle of the Lake series, was coming off a one-sided loss to the Lakers and carrying a six-game TRL losing streak.

But no more.

Leading the Lakers by a run after three innings, the Pacers put a death grip on the game in the fourth, sending 14 batters to the plate, banging out six hits and pouring across 10 runs to beat LO 12-1 in five innings at Lake Oswego High School on Wednesday, May 7.

“We’ve been on a little losing streak and this kind of gets the momentum going right when we want it,” said Lakeridge junior pitcher Cooper Berta, who came back from injury to win his first start of the season by throwing five innings and limiting the Lakers to one run on four hits and one walk with two strikeouts. “Now we’ve just got to keep swinging it. We’ve been putting the ball in play hard and we’ve just got to keep doing that.”

“We were cold for a while, but I think this one will get us going,” said Pacer senior first baseman Tyler Truong, who went 1 for 2 at the plate with a double, one run scored and two RBIs. “It just feels good today to finally get it. We just didn’t want let each other down and it’s fun to see everyone succeeding. That’s something we really needed as a team.”

Along with a 4-1 win over LO on Friday, May 9, the 20th-ranked Pacers won for the second straight time and improved to 5-7 in Three Rivers League play and 9-14 overall. Next up, the Pacers will face Oregon City in the second game of their three-game series at 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, at Oregon City High School.

No. 21 Lake Oswego, meanwhile, lost for the second straight time and fell to 6-6 in TRL play and 9-15 overall. Next up, the Lakers will face Tualatin in the second game of their three-game series at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, at Lake Oswego High School.

“I honestly don’t think it’s going to bother us too much because we know we’re good team and we know we can hit the ball and we know we can pitch way better than we did today,” said Lake Oswego senior shortstop Rylan McClaskey, who went 0 for 2 at the plate and handled five defensive chances without an error. “Coming off the first game, we were hot … but I think today we were just too jumpy, too complacent.”

For Lake Oswego sophomore second baseman Ryder Lemm, the key is what comes next.

“We’ll forget about this game completely if we take (the final series) game,” said Lemm, who handled three defensive chances without an error and also had a sacrifice bunt in the second inning. “That’s all that matters.”

Lakeridge grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the second when junior Johnny King walked, senior Jack Barss singled to right and junior Jaden Tragesser hit a two-run single up the middle.

Lake Oswego closed within 2-1 in the bottom of the inning when junior Carsten Lemon led off with a double to left and junior Kellan Sheldon followed with a run-scoring double to right.

But then, after a scoreless third, the Pacers took over. They opened the frame with walks to five of their first six batters, then got hot. After that, Lakeridge banged out five hits in a row, with Truong and senior Jake Kotansky both hitting two-run doubles, while senior Porter Bayne, Berta, King and junior Andrew Ha all stroked RBI singles in their 10-run inning.

“We kind of just feed off momentum,” Truong said. “Nobody wants to let each other down and I think that’s going to carry over.”

“It just felt like every person was going to get on base,” Berta added. “There was no doubt in my mind that they were going to put the ball in the gap, they were going to get on, they were going to fight.”

For the game, all nine Lakeridge starters finished with one hit each, with Tragesser collecting three RBIs and King scoring three times.

The Lakers, meanwhile, maintained their confidence despite the setback.

“Before today, we had three or four complete games in a row and our offense has been hot,” McClaskey said. “Our defense is doing great for us … (and) we’ve been hitting the ball great. … We’ve got practice tomorrow so we’ll just get after it and figure out what we need to work on.”

Lemon led the Lakers after going 2 for 2 with a double.