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Girls drop three games in SCC, lose to Maple River

By Staff | May 20, 2012

The Blue Earth Area Softball team went up against St. James on Thursday in their last regular game of the season.

The Saints went away with the win, barely beating the Bucs with an end score of 2-1.

“We’ve had our ongoing struggle with St. James this season,” Coach Abby Bloomquist says. “We were really hoping to end our regular season with a win but we came up a bit short.”

Megan Wirtjes took charge at the mound, pitching all seven innings allowing them only two hits.

Whitney Pirsig, Abby Nimz and Monica Krieger all turned their hits into doubles, which provided the Bucs with some base action.

Audrey McDonald had three at bats one of which resulted in a strong hit that brought in their run for the game.

BEA seem to have continuing success in producing hits, but they have been unable to turn those hits into runs.

“We outhit St. James, but our hits just couldn’t fall at the right time,” Bloomquist says.

Although the Bucs didn’t get the win in their face-off against the Saints, they are ready to start sections.

“The girls have been playing tough defense,” the coach says. “We’re very excited to start section play against Waseca.”

The Bucs will start section play-offs against Waseca on Tuesday.

Waseca 5, BEA 3

BEA travelled to Waseca on Tuesday to face the Bluejays again, with hopes of a better outcome than their last match up together.

“The Bucs came up a bit short tonight,” Bloomquist says, “But the girls really played a great game.”

The game ended 5-3 in favor of the Bluejays but the Bucs didn’t give up on the game.

Waseca kicked things off by bringing in two runs in the bottom of the first inning, without allowing any runs for BEA.

The Bucs prevented the Bluejays from scoring any additional runs in the second but also failed to score themselves.

Waseca came back in the third inning with one more run bringing the score to 3-0, and BEA?failed to create any action on their side.

The fifth and sixth inning brought in two more runs for the Bluejays and the Bucs stayed put, unable to bring in any runs.

BEA, however, wasn’t willing to sit back and watch Waseca leave with an easy win. In the last inning of the game, the team mustered a little extra energy and attempted to take the game back.

Pirsig and Ashton Hendricksen both got hits with two at bats Pirsig hitting a triple.

Then, with her teammates on base, Nimz hit a double with two runs batted in, and scored a run herself.

The Bucs showed off some good hitting in the seventh, hoping to even up the game. They brought in three runs getting a little closer to the Bluejays with a score of 5-3.

“It was fantastic to see the girls fight back in the seventh in an attempt to salvage a win,” the BEA?coach says.

Wirtjes pitched all seven innings, facing 29 batters.

“Wirtjes did great work on the mound, and she was a key factor in our performance tonight,” the BEA coach says.

BEA?will face St. James next and hope to gain more momentum going against the Saints.

“We look forward to carrying our ever-improving defense into our last regular game of the season on Thursday,” Bloomquist adds.

Maple River 10, BEA?0

The Buccaneers took on the Maple River Eagles on Monday only to find themselves in another losing game.

“Although the final score wasn’t as pretty as we’d like, we actually took a lot away from this game,” Bloomquist says.

Wirtjes pitched five innings to the Eagles in which they managed to score ten runs.

Within the first two innings, neither the Bucs or Eagles brought in a run.

“Maple River was able to execute offensive strategies that other teams we’ve seen thus far have been unable to execute,” the BEA?coach says.

By the third inning the Eagles were ready to take control of the game, and brought in two runs in the bottom of the inning.

Maple River continued their streak by bringing in four runs during the fourth inning.

The Eagles forged ahead, ending the game in the fifth inning by scoring four more runs and leaving the Bucs in the dust at 10-0.

Pirsig had two at bats, both producing doubles but no runs.

Chelsea Owen also batted twice, and got one hit which didn’t amount to a run. Krieger also had one hit from her two at bats.

Although the team lost, Bloomquist sees this game as a good learning experience for the team.

“We learned where some of our holes are,” she says. “We came away knowing that we have a few things to work on as we look forward to our games against Waseca and St. James.”

Hopefully the lessons learned against Maple River can be applied to the next couple of games, as the players continue to improve.

“Overall we’re playing solid defense, but tend to get caught in one or two rough innings that end up putting us in a hole,”?Bloomquist says. “If we play our game throughout all seven innings the outcome of games will be much different.”