The North Ballarat batsman made 174 runs to guide Ballarat to 6-321 and a commanding 97-run victory.

Lorenzen mixed power with finesse as he anchored the BCA to a total which had Geelong feeling the heat long before it ventured to the crease.

And when the visitors did get their turn to bat, Geelong's inability to string together sizeable partnerships was its undoing as the BCA effectively shared the workload with the ball.

Lorenzen said it was pleasing to get time in the middle in what had been a testing season at club level for him - especially after a tough start to the day against a moving Duke ball.

He said as difficult as it was at times, it was all about knuckling down, rotating the strike and waiting for the bad balls.

Lorenzen has only once made a bigger score - 179 during a stint in England.

Ballarat captain Nathan Yates described Lorenzen's innings as "amazing".

Yates said the players had spoken pre-game about the need to have someone bat through a large part of the innings.

Yates said he was impressed with the way everyone had played a role, with bat and ball.

He said Geelong was a quality side and even with so many runs on the board batting first Ballarat did not feel completely comfortable until the wickets tumbled at the end of the day.

Ballarat did not make the best of starts to the game, losing Sam Miller before he had scored.

Harry Killoran then joined Lorenzen and the rebuild began against a left-arm dominated attack.

With Darley's Killoran playing the anchor role, Ballarat kept the runs flowing, with 100 coming up in the 20th over.

Killoran holed out for 35 at deep mid-wicket couple of overs later.

This opened the door for captain Nathan Yates to push along the run rate, before he was bowled for 20 (4 fours, 1 six) when he advanced down the pitch in attempt to send the ball out of the ground.

This paved the way for Jarrod Burns, 48 (4 fours, 1 six) to join Lorenzen and ensure a 300-plus total.

They put on 144 for the fourth wicket with their stand ending when Lorenzen's defence was finally penetrated with 290 on the board in the 46th over.

Ash McCafferty, 2-35, and Prabath Priyankara, 1-10 off six overs, gave Ballarat the start it needed with the ball to have Geelong on the ropes at 3-11.

Daniel Weigl, 45, and Pat Richards, 43, put Geelong back in the game with an 87-run stand, but two wickets to Steve Nicholson in as many balls temporarily interrrupted the chase.

Ryan Gibson, 60, and Alistair McCann, 43, again put Geelong back in the contest as it reached 6-209 and a gettable required run rate.

However, as they had all innings, wickets against fell in a group as 4-15 closed out the encounter.

Ryan Knowles helped clean up the tail with 2-39, while Killoran took 2-26 and Nicholson finished with 3-60.

Ballarat plays Sale-Maffra at Yarrambat on Tuesday.