Olivia Dutton is all business as she gets ready to hurl the softball to the plate in the Bucs’ game against St. James last Tuesday. Dutton and Kylie Eckmann have shared the pitching duties for BEA this year.

Blue Earth Area knew they were facing one of the top teams in the area when the St. James Area Saints came to town on Tuesday, May 3.

The Saints came into the game with a 5-2 record and each of their losses had been by one run.

St. James Area used one hit, five walks and a hit batsman to score four runs in the first inning on their way to a six inning, 10-0 victory over BEA.

Kylee Johnson got the only hit for the Bucs, who struck out 12 times against the Saints’ pitcher, Addie Bowers. Bowers did not issue a walk in her complete game victory.

St. James Area added two more runs in the top of the second inning before being held scoreless the next three innings.

The Saints pushed four more runs across the plate in the top of the sixth inning to secure the 10-0 victory.

Windom 10, BEA 0

The Eagles’ Jenna Veenker surrendered only one hit to Blue Earth Area and Veenker’s teammates scored 10 runs in the first three innings to take the opening game of a doubleheader by the final score of 10-0.

The five-inning contest was played in cold and windy conditions in Windom on Monday, May 2.

Reagan Machacek had the only hit for the Bucs, a double in the top of the second inning.

Windom 9, BEA 2

The Bucs did better in the second game of the doubleheader but still ended up on the wrong end of a 9-2 score.

Windom was the visiting team on the scoreboard for the second game and took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

BEA responded by tying the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the first inning.

With two outs Taylor Klabunde and Reagan Machacek hit back-to-back singles. Claire Sullivan hit a double to right field to score Klabunde.

Kyla Roiger followed with a single to right field to plate Machacek and tie the game 2-2.

Windom took the lead for good with four runs in the top of the second inning.

The Eagles added one run in the fourth inning and two more in the sixth inning.

Machacek had two hits in the game while Olivia Dutton, Klabunde, Sullivan and Roiger each had one.

JCC 10, BEA 0

The Blue Earth Area softball team had trouble getting their offense in gear when they traveled to Jackson on Friday, April 29, to take on the Huskies in a Big South Conference game. The result was a 10-0 victory for Jackson County Central.

JCC held the BEA batters to just three hits in five innings of play. Meanwhile, the Huskies had seven hits and took advantage of three errors by the Bucs’ defense to score their 10 runs.

It was a scoreless first inning but JCC plated two runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 2-0 lead.

The hometown Huskies added five more runs in the bottom of the third inning and two more in the bottom of the fourth to go up 9-0.

JCC then produced one run in the last half of the fifth inning to end the game with a 10-run lead.

BEA’s hits all came from the top of their batting order. The first three batters in the Bucs’ lineup, Kylee Eckmann, Olivia Dutton and Reagan Machacek each had one hit.

Eckmann was on the mound for the Bucs. She gave up 10 runs on seven hits while striking out five and walking five batters.