Nothing about playing in the Class 3A, Section 3 baseball tournament is easy. If Lakeville North needed any reminder of that, a formidable conference rival from Burnsville was happy to oblige in Friday’s semifinal at Alimagnet Park.

The top-seeded Panthers ran into a veritable buzz saw in the form of Blaze pitcher Cooper Maas, who, with some help from a soggy infield that swallowed up any ball hit along the ground, shut down the Panthers in a three-hit, complete game gem — a 2-0 victory for Burnsville.

Afterward, Lakeville coach Tony Market could only shrug, seemingly unfazed by his team’s first loss in the double-elimination tourney.

“This is a tough section that has a lot of good baseball played in it,” Market said. “You can’t be surprised to go through trials. That’s life. It all comes down to how you respond to it that makes you who you are, makes your team what it is. It’s about how you come back tomorrow. The most important game is always the next one.”

The singular focus of that last line has come to represent Lakeville’s season. The Panthers have thrived in a spring condensed by not-so-seasonal weather, stringing together win after win to earn its seed at the top of what is arguably the state’s most difficult section.

Even on the brink of elimination, the mind-set hasn’t changed.

“Baseball’s a game of inches and timely hitting,” senior outfielder Zach Creighton said. “You can’t dwell on anything. You come back and play, and focus on winning the next one.”

Short and sweet

Since Market took over the Panther program in 2005, Lakeville hasn’t had a single team captain.

“In any game, someone is going to always have to step up and lead you, and you don’t get voted into that position,” the coach said. “For whatever reason, your time is going to come, and you have to embrace that opportunity.”

Whether it was junior A.J. Sayer leading off each of the Panthers’ first four games of the season with a double, or senior Brandon Morgan’s late-season clutch hitting, or junior Dalton Lehnen providing a true power bat to Lakeville’s cleanup spot, the Panthers have had player after player step up throughout the season.

Market knew heading into the spring that his team would be a good one. It featured a mix of juniors and seniors and a lone sophomore in starting shortstop Angelo Altavilla. The Panthers rattled off eight victories to start the season and scored eight or more runs in 10 of their 17 regular season games.

“With the weather, it was a very different spring,” said Market, noting one stretch in which his team played 10 times in 12 days. “Luckily, the spring challenged us that way and we responded. It’s nice to play every day when you’re playing well.”

It helped earn the Panthers that top seed in the section, and they cruised to victories over Prior Lake and St. Thomas Academy before Friday’s semifinal loss to No. 2 Burnsville.

The Panthers earned a rematch with Burnsville with a 3-2 victory over Eagan in the losers’ bracket on Monday. Lakeville North and Burnsville played Tuesday. That game was not over when this edition went to press.

“It just goes to show how hard this section is,” Creighton said. “There are four or five teams that feel they can win the state tournament. We’re one of them. Any team can beat any team in this section. No game’s easy.”