ROCHESTER HILLS >> Unbeaten against OAA opponents to start the season, Rochester Adams has had it going on almost all cylinders this month, but none of its batters had been able to send one out of the park just yet.

That changed on Saturday for the Highlanders, who used three home runs to beat Lakeland 9-4 in the second game of Adams’ home doubleheader sweep.

“It’s nice to see the bats going,” Adams head coach Andrew Lamkin said. “The weather’s been horrible, so not very kind to the bats, but I think one through 20, we’re deep. Any of them can play.”

Jake Sorvari’s RBI single got Lakeland out front in the first inning, but the Highlanders came back in the bottom of the frame four runs on three hits, including a triple by Henry Hittle, and later a solo dinger by Henry Donohoe, who smacked it out of the park on his second at-bat, too, hitting a two-run shot that put Adams ahead 6-3 in the third.

McCallister Doelle extended the Highlanders’ lead to a handful by driving a full-count offering over the fence in left in the fourth inning.

Lakeland managed just three fewer base knocks than Adams, but the Highlanders’ trio of Jack Durand, Drew Stitzel and Andrew Wozniak scattered their eight hits allowed and worked out of trouble well throughout the contest.

Senior Jack Miller (Bowling Green), who reached base three times in the second game, drove in four runs on a pair of hits for the Eagles in the opening game of the day, but Adams scored the first eight runs and went on to win that one also, 12-9.

Hittle, Jessee Geottes and Matt Toeppner each had three hits to help the Highlanders build the advantage in Game 1. Lakeland countered with six in the third inning, but Adams tacked on two runs in the bottom half of the inning to make it a four-run game.

Later, the Eagles got it to within one on a sacrifice fly by Blake Loisel and a two-run single into right by Miller. However, Geottes and Toeppner each padded the lead with run-scoring hits to provide Adams immediate insurance for the second time, and that proved to be enough offense.

“We did not play, I think, the way that we’re normally capable of playing, and the guys know that,” Eagles head coach Aaron Bell said. “We’re usually more sound defensively than the way we played, so that was a little bit of a bummer, but our guys battled back in the first game. We brought it back after we were down big, made it a game, and I even thought in Game 2 there was a time where we had momentum, but you can’t get down to a good team like (Adams) like that.”

The Highlanders, ranked No. 4 in the latest Division 1 poll, haven’t needed too much offense so far this season with the way it’s gone for them on the mound. Along with the stellar 11 2/3 innings of relief work by Ryland Watters (1 ER allowed), Adams returning rotation of Stitzel, Durand and Drew Syzmanski has posted a collective 3.21 ERA in 42 frames of work, a catalyst for the team’s 10-2 start. Their only losses suffered were to preseason Division 1 top-ranked Brother Rice.

“They did a good job last year, and they’re just continuing it,” Lamkin said. “It’s been nice.”

Unsurprisingly then, Adams has high expectations for the league after finishing tied at the top of the OAA Red with Lake Orion last year.

“Yeah, I think going into this year, losing Bino (Watters, now playing at Notre Dame), I’m sure a lot of people just overlooked us, but really, (along), with our second baseman, they’re the only ones (we’ve lost), Lamkin said. “We knew going in that we were pretty good, and just having all our pitching back helps.”

Lakeland is under new management following the retirement of Brad Farquhar, who hung it up following a season that ended with a district championship, then elimination in regionals by eventual state champion Northville.

The Eagles are off to a 7-4 start under Bell, an assistant under Farquhar.

“Big shoes to fill,” Bell said. “I was with Brad the last three years, and he’s just a great mentor, great guy. He definitely set a pretty good standard here for this program, and that’s my goal, to continue that the best I can.”

Bell said that even if he wasn’t Farquhar’s successor, he was committed to remaining with the program as an assistant, but now he’ll be responsible for maintaining its high standards. The Eagles finished second in the LVC in 2024, an aberration after winning the league the handful of seasons prior.

“At a place like Lakeland, the goal is always to win the league, for sure,” Bell said. “There’s really no discussion, that’s how our players feel.

“It’s a goal that’s understood. It’s something that gets passed on team to team. But I told the kids from the get-go, our goal is to play better at the end of the season than the beginning.

“So a day like today, it’s easy to get a little discouraged, but the way I look at it, you’re not winning any championships on April 19.

“There’s a lot of baseball ahead of us in the next five weeks, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to get better so that by the end, we’re playing our best baseball.”