Kylee Johnson of BEA slides safely into third base with a triple during the second inning of the Bucs’ game against Medford.

The Blue Earth Area softball team rallied twice against the Medford Tigers but came up short in the end as the Tigers upended the Bucs 10-8 in a game played on Saturday, May 8.

Medford scored one run in the top of the first inning. BEA tied the game in the bottom of the second inning. Kylee Johnson tripled to left field and scored on Roxanne Quinterro’s sacrifice fly.

The Tigers regained the lead in the top of the third when they scored one run. They increased their advantage to 6-1 with four more runs in the top of the fifth inning.

The feisty Buccaneers responded by scoring four runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth.

Kylee Eckmann hit a hard grounder to the shortstop who was unable to handle the ball. The resulting error put Eckmann at first base and more errors by the Tigers allowed her to score.

Eckmann stole second base and the throw from the catcher sailed into centerfield as Eckmann headed to third base. The throw from the fielder to the third baseman sailed over everybody and into the Bucs’ dugout which allowed Eckmann to score.

Ashlyn Klinkner kept things going with a single to the outfield. McKenna Dutton hit a hard grounder to the shortstop which resulted in another error and put two BEA runners on base. Miya Gustafson reached on another error by the shortstop. Klinkner and Dutton would score on wild pitches and Gustafson scored on Clara Ziegler’s RBI single to make the score 6-5 in favor of the Tigers after five complete innings.

Medford added three more runs in the top of the sixth and one more in the top of the seventh to go up 10-5 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Tigers got two quick outs in the bottom of the seventh inning. Gustafson reached base on an error. Consecutive singles by Ziegler, Quinterro, Kyla Roiger, and Berkeley Hagedorn resulted in three runs and put the tying run on base. Unfortunately, the Bucs’ rally ended when the Medford pitcher caught a pop up to end the game.

The Bucs record fell to 2-11 following the loss while the Tigers improved to 4-7.