Burnsville Uses Big Second Inning to Drive By Eagan

It’s early in the season, but defending Class AAA state softball champion Burnsville is looking strong again.

The Blaze drove in five runs in a big second inning to go to 2-0 on the season Friday with a 7-3 South Suburban Conference home opening win over visiting Eagan.

Eagan led 1-0 when the Burnsville bats awoke in the second. Senior captain Megan Lehnan and junior Laura Nadeau had run-scoring singles as the Blaze exploded in the second inning for a decisive five runs.

“I thought we hit pretty well today against a solid pitcher,” said Lehnan. “We hit our pitches well up there at the plate.”

“Definitely our hitting,” agreed junior Abby Harazin. “It was very contagious. We just picked up off each other and really worked as a team.”

“I was really happy with how they made adjustments at the plate,” said Burnsville head coach Hillary Hansen. “The first time through the order their pitcher really took advantage of our hitters. We made some adjustments and were able to score some runs.”

After that second-inning outburst the game settled down, but Burnsville was never faultered and led 7-2 most of the contest.

Despite having a big lead most of the game, Hansen said she didn’t feel any less pressure.

“I’m never relaxed against Eagan,” Hansen said. “I don’t think I could be up by 100 runs and relax against Eagan. They’re a very good team and I have a ton of respect for them. We luckily had a bunch of pressure situations yesterday that we kind of got to work through and we’ll take all the experience we can.”

Burnsville’s players had a hard time coming up with flaws in Friday’s game.

“There were little things. I wouldn’t have liked them to have stolen as many bases,” Harazin said. “But otherwise, I thought our defense was good, good,” said Harazin. “Eagan’s always been a pretty good competitor with us so it was good to beat them.”

Lauren Smith made a successful return to form after missing most of last season with an ACL injury. Smith was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and Lehnan went 4-for-4 with one RBI to lead the Blaze offensively.

Burnsville senior pitching ace Kelsey Anderson had six strikeouts while allowing five hits and five walks.

“We have a few defensive adjustments we’re going to keep working on,” said Hansen. “We have a couple of younger kids at third base and behind the plate that are taking huge strides forward, but I know there are some things they want to clean up, too.”

Burnsville opened the season with a 4-3 win in nine innings over Lakeville North Thursday.

Burnsville hosts Prior Lake Monday in a game starting at 4:15 p.m.