Long Lake (Minn.) Orono Senior High's baseball team has a number of experienced stars, but one of the team's youngest contributors achieved something that none of them -- and few others in state history -- have ever been able to achieve: He recorded a state-record six hits in a single game.
As reported by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Orono sophomore Jake Flemmer rapped six hits in his team's eight-inning, 14-8 win against Dassel-Cokato (Minn.) High, delivering six different singles and driving in three runs and scoring two in the process. The budding catcher became only the third player in state history to provide six hits in a single game, joining 1951 New Elm (Minn.) High star Walt Keckeisen and 2001 Blooming Prairie (Minn.) standout Bryan Kramer as the only Minnesotans to come up six hits in a single contest.
Yes, that means Minnesota prep legend turned MLB superstar Joe Mauer never pulled off that feat.
While it's difficult to deliver six hits in any circumstances, the ones that led to Flemmer's breakout game may have been particularly bizarre. Orono appeared doomed to a loss until the Spartans scored three rallying runs in the seventh inning, and then sent 11 different batters to the plate in the eighth inning. Flemmer batted twice in those innings, landing hits both times to finish 6-for-6 in the game.
"[The victory against Dassel-Cokato] was unbelievable," Orono coach Dick Crandall told the Star-Tribune's Minnesota Baseball Hub. "He's a good player. He's not just a one game deal."
Flemmer may be a good player, but he's also a profoundly new impact player on the scene. Just how new is he? New enough that Flemmer doesn't have baseball photos out there, period. Rather, the established hockey stud has plenty of shots of himself scoring goals and delivering assists, but none of him belting hits.
That may change if Flemmer and Orono can keep plowing forward with the success he helped key against Dassel-Cokato. After all, anytime someone can deliver six hits in a game, plenty of college coaches and other scouts are bound to take notice.
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