A Mapleview man has been sentenced to one year probation for hitting his neighbors’ 10-month-old dog in the back of the head with a baseball bat.

The dog suffered a fractured skull and concussion and needed three stitches in the back of its head due to the blow.

Lane Allan Geyer, 46, was given probation in lieu of 30 days in jail; he must also pay a $385 fine. He was convicted of mistreating animals — a misdemeanor offense.

The incident in question took place May 21, when 30-year-old Justin Robert Feifarek’s dog got loose and jumped into Geyer’s backyard pond.

Feifarek was trying to get the dog to come back to his yard when it ran into Geyer’s garage. According to a court complaint, Geyer struck the dog in the hip with a baseball bat and then brought the bat down onto the back of the dog’s head, knocking it to the ground.

Feifarek told police he had given Geyer permission to “smack it” if the dog got into his pond again, but he didn’t mean it was okay to hit it with a baseball bat.

When police spoke with Geyer, he said he “cracked it with the bat.” Geyer said he was trying to protect his coy fish as he has more than $4,000 of coy fish and plants in the pond, according to a court complaint.

Geyer told officers he shouldn’t have hit the dog and seemed genuinely remorseful, court documents said.