Zac Schonrock, left, prepares to deliver a pitch during Blue Earth Area’s Tuesday trip to Montgomery for a game against the Tri-City United Titans. BEA fell to the Titans in a 6-1 decision before dropping a 6-1 matchup with Waterville-Elysian-Morristown on Thursday.

The Buccaneers came out on top Thursday night, but they were not the ones Blue Earth Area was hoping for.

Facing elimination from the Section 2AA baseball tournament, BEA ?struck first against Waterville-Elysian-Morristown, holding the rival Bucs to four straight one-two-three innings and taking a 1-0 lead on a Kolt Gorg run in the fourth. WEM?rallied, however, and six runs over the game’s final two innings led to a 6-1 Blue Earth defeat, undoing a glimmer of hope for the maroon and gold, which less than a week earlier had upset No. 3-seeded Kenyon-Wanamingo High School.

Senior Alan Davids, 2 for 4 at the plate, went all six innings for BEA on the mound, striking out four and surrendering the same amount of earned runs. Three straight batters reached base for WEM?in the fifth frame, kicking off the host Bucs’ late resurgence.

Gorg, who also walked twice, was one of several BEA batters to find success in Waterville. Catcher Kaylan Legred had a pair of singles and right fielder Jesus Quintero doubled, while second baseman Chris Sanders, first baseman Zac Schonrock and center fielder Cole Hendricksen also reached base.

TCU?6, BEA 1

“One bad inning.”

That was the diagnosis from Blue Earth Area coach Todd Schmidtke after the Buccaneers dropped a second-round Section 2AA matchup with Tri-City United High School on Tuesday.

Fresh off an upset of No. 3-seeded Kenyon-Wanamingo, the Bucs kept the Titans within reach early in their Montgomery showdown. After allowing a first-inning run, No. 14 BEA?stranded three TCU?runners through two frames.

But the Titans, fueled by four hits and an error, went on a five-run tear in the third, putting the Buccaneers in a sudden hole.

BEA’s Zac Schonrock, relieving starter Logan Jahnke on the mound, held TCU?scoreless for the remainder of the game.

The six-run deficit, however, was too much to overcome for the Bucs. Outside of a solo home run by senior Alan Davids in the sixth, the team mustered just three total hits. One of them, a single by second baseman Chris Sanders, came on the first at-bat of the afternoon.

The first inning was also the only time BEA?had at least two runners on base, as catcher Kaylan Legred followed Sanders’ single with a walk.

“They played really good defense,”?Schmidtke said of the host Titans, before emphasizing that the Buccaneers’ focus is on their next game.

Dropping to 6-16 overall, BEA was slotted into a rematch with Waterville-Elysian-Morristown as part of the Section 2AA double-elimination tournament.

BEA 5, K-W 2

Behind seven combined hits and a complete game from Alan Davids on the mound, Blue Earth Area baseball catapulted to Montgomery thanks to a 5-2 upset of No. 3-seeded Kenyon-Wanamingo High School on Friday, May 27.

Davids helped the Buccaneers jump out to an early lead in Wanamingo, scoring the second of two first-inning runs, then allowed just one earned run over the course of the game to seal BEA’s win.

Catcher Kaylan Legred scored first for the Bucs, turning a single into a run. Legred, Kolt Gorg and third baseman Logan Jahnke combined to put three more runs on the board throughout the contest, while Chris Sanders, Jesus Quintero and Cole Hendricksen also reached base on hits.

Kenyon-Wanamingo, which entered the Section 2AA tournament with just two losses, threatened in the bottom of the seventh with two hits and a run. But Davids stranded one man on base to secure BEA’s three-run victory.