Joel Klinkhammer wasn't quite himself last year.

The righthander always had been the ace of the pitching staff growing up. But in his junior season at Lakeville North High School, he only pitched 15 innings in varsity play.

The Panthers had some talented senior arms. Klinkhammer tried to live up to some of them, so much that he strayed from his style of pitching: locating and changing speeds.

It affected him in a variety of ways.

"I'm usually out there with a big smile on my face, and when you're out trying to prove something, it's kind of hard to have that smile," said Klinkhammer, now a senior.

Teammate and buddy Austin Streit noticed something was different about him. That all changed, though, once Klinkhammer realized he had to stick to what he knew best.

"This year he's really calmed down and became a bulldog for us," said Streit, the team's catcher. "He's eaten a lot of innings."

He pitched 47 1/3 innings, to be exact -- more than triple his total last season as a junior. He has a 6-1 record, including two shutouts and a 2.07 ERA. He even started the season with 28 scoreless innings.

"He pitched real well in Legion ball. Senior year rolls around for him and he's embraced every opportunity," coach Tony Market said. "He thrives in that role."

And the team has benefited tremendously from it -- a team Market says is the youngest squad ever since the Lakeville split into two schools in 2005.

Each Lakeville North team since then has had at least 10 seniors. This year, there are only six. Underclassmen headed into this season knowing spots were available -- and they showed up to battle for each and every one of them.

"It was kind of nerve-wracking," Streit said of the team's youth and inexperience. "But now, we know this is a good team. We know we can all produce at this level, and we have."

Their efforts have brought the Panthers up to the No. 3 spot of the tough South Suburban Conference, led by the oh-so-dominant Class 3A, No. 1-ranked Burnsville. There's a talented batch of teams below Burnsville, and Lakeville North has emerged as one of them.

Jordan Jacobson has complemented Klinkhammer with three victories. The lefthander controls his pitches, changes speeds and brings a calm demeanor to the mound.

"He has this quiet disposition about him and this inner confidence that you just can't rattle him," Market said.

While pitching guided the Panthers through the first half of the season, hitting has taken over halfway through and has since carried Lakeville North through the end of the regular season. Sophomore Dalton Lehnen, who also pitches, has been a pleasant surprise and a ringing example of the youth movement. He leads the team with three home runs.

After coming off a torn ACL from last summer, Neil Engler has been a valuable contributor. Streit, a third-year varsity player, has been one of the steadiest players Market has had in the lineup. Streit hit a game- winning grand slam against Eastview at the midpoint of the season and has 17 RBI.

With pitching dominating the early goings and the offense ramping up halfway through, the team feels poised for a section playoff run, despite the talented obstacles it may face.

"Going into the playoffs, if we can merge both of those together, I think we'll be the team to beat," Klinkhammer said.