Joey Flohrs was on the mound for the Pirates when they resumed their game against Lake Crystal on July 23. Flohrs pitched three innings in the Pirates’ 14-2 win. Blue Earth also defeated Wells before losing to the Eagle Lake Expos.

The Blue Earth Pirates and Eagle Lake Expos combined for 33 hits and 16 runs when the two teams faced off in a Sunday evening game on July 26, in Blue Earth.

While the Pirates led in hits 17-16, the Expos came out on top in the battle for runs and pocketed a 10-6 victory over the Pirates.

The game was originally scheduled for a 2 p.m. start but had to be pushed back to later in the day because of the rain which fell in Blue Earth Sunday morning.

Eagle Lake took an early lead against Pirates’ starter Logan Jahnke with one run in the top of the first inning. The Expos added two runs in the top of the third inning and four in the top of the fourth inning before Zach Schonrock relieved Jahnke to record the last out and end the Expos’ threat.

Down 7-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, the Pirates came to life and put three runs on the board to cut the visitor’s lead to 7-3.

Hunter Bleess, who had three hits during the game, led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single. Bleess moved to third on a hit by Lee Hodges.

Next, Schonrock made his first trip to the plate of the day. After falling behind two strikes in the count, he hit a line drive single to score Bleess and move Hodges to second base.

A single by Kaylan Legred loaded the bases for Keegan O’Brien. The right fielder hit a grounder through the infield to bring home Hodges with Blue Earth’s second run of the inning.

TJ Schmidtke’s hard grounder to the first baseman resulted in Schonrock being forced out at home but Schmidtke reached first base safely to keep the bases loaded.

Brandyn Olsen hit a grounder to the shortstop and was thrown out at first base but Legred scored for the Pirates to make it a 7-3 game after four innings.

Eagle Lake added two more runs in the top of the fifth inning to go up 9-3.

Blue Earth got one run back in the bottom of the fifth.

Bleess hit a one-out single to get on base in the home half of the fifth. Hodges was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Schonrock bunted for a single to load the bases.

Legred hit a grounder to the Expos’ third baseman who threw to the catcher to force Bleess out at home. The catcher threw to first base in an attempt to complete the double play but his throw sailed past the first baseman which allowed Hodges to score with the Pirates’ fourth run of the game.

Blue Earth added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Luke Mertens led off with a line drive single. Olsen walked to put runners on first and second. Kane Malo’s line drive single scored Mertens with Olsen holding up at second base.

Bleess collected his third hit of the day, a double to score Olsen and make the score 9-6 with Eagle Lake still on top.

It would be the end of the scoring for the Pirates while the Expos added one more in the top of the seventh inning for their 10-6 win.

In addition to three hits by Bleess, five other Pirates had a multiple hit game. Malo also had three hits while Schmidtke, Olsen, Schonrock and Mertens each colleted two hits.

Eagle Lake was charged with one error and left 13 runners on base. Blue Earth committed two errors and stranded 15 runners on base.

Blue Earth 10, Wells 4

Blue Earth traveled to Minnesota Lake on Friday, July 24, to take on the Wells Wildcats in a 13/60 League baseball game. Wells hosted the game in Minnesota Lake because they do not have lights on their field in Wells.

The game was close in the early innings before the Pirates pulled away for the 10-4 win.

Lee Hodges went the distance for the Pirates, striking out six Wildcat batters while walking none. The right-hander allowed seven hits in his first two innings of work and then held Wells to just five more hits for the remainder of the game.

Blue Earth scored three runs in the top of the first inning. Keegan O’Brien hit a lead-off single and went to second base on a passed ball. TJ Schmidtke drew a walk to put runners on first and second base with zero outs. A single by Brandyn Olsen scored O’Brien and advanced Schmidtke to third.

Kane Malo hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score Schmidtke. A two-out opposite field double off the bat of TJ Stallman brought Olsen home with the third and final run of the inning.

Wells used a double, two singles and two errors to score twice in the bottom of the first inning and make the score 3-2 in favor of the Pirates.

Blue Earth added two more runs in the top of the second inning.

Hodges hit a ball past the third baseman for a single. A sacrifice bunt by Hunter Bleess moved Hodges to second base. Following a fly out to center field, Schmidtke came through with a two-out double to bring Hodges home. Schmidtke scored when Olsen singled to left. The Pirates now led 5-2.

Wells used two consecutive doubles and a single in the bottom of the second inning to score twice and cut Blue Earth’s lead to 5-4. It would be the last runs of the evening for the Wildcats.

The Pirates scored one run in the top of the fifth inning. O’Brien was safe at first on a dropped third strike. He went to second on a passed ball and scored on Schmidtke’s single to give Blue Earth a 6-4 lead.

The Pirates added two runs in each of the last two innings to earn the 10-4 victory.

BE 14, Lake Crystal 2

The Pirates and Lakers met on Thursday, July 23, in Blue Earth, to resume play in a game which had been suspended earlier in the season. Rain in Lake Crystal had put a halt to the game with Blue Earth on top 6-0 after two innings.

The Pirates used a five run fourth inning to take an 11-0 lead on their way to a 14-2 victory in eight innings.

Joey Flohrs and Zach Schonrock each pitched three innings to finish the game for Blue Earth.

The Pirates had 15 hits to just three for the Lakers.

Blue Earth was set to begin competing in the Region playoffs against Gaylord on Sunday, Aug. 2, with a game starting at 2 p.m. in Gaylord.

Results of that contest will be in next week’s edition of the Faribault County Register.