Blue Earth Area’s Parker Meyers gets his hand under the glove of the Medford third baseman and was called safe by the umpire in a very close play.

Nick Barke’s two-out line drive single to left field drove home Soren Fering with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Blue Earth Area a walk-off 5-4 victory over the Medford Tigers in the opening round of the Section 2AA baseball tournament.

Barke’s hit, which came on a two ball, two strike count, brought a collective sigh of relief to the Buccaneer fans.

Medford, the No. 11-seeded team, kept the BEA faithful on the edge throughout the game and nearly pulled off an upset of the No. 6-seeded Bucs.

“Guys, we will take the win. But, we have a lot of things to work on and clean up before our next game,” BEA head coach Paul Nienaber told his squad after his team pulled out the narrow victory.

The Bucs’ defense committed four errors during the contest which allowed the Tigers to score two unearned runs in the top of the fifth inning to give the visitors a 3-2 lead.

Meanwhile, Medford’s pitcher, Casey Chambers, kept the BEA batters off balance in the batter’s box.

“We had heard he was a good pitcher and he did a good job of mixing his pitches and changing speeds,” Nienaber commented. “He disrupted our batters. And, we have guys that can hit. So, we tip our hats to him.”

Barke’s heroics were made possible when Soren Fering hit a one-out single between the shortstop and third baseman.

Kean Hicks was down 1-2 in the count when he was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second.

Logan O’Hara hit a bouncer back to the pitcher who threw to the second baseman to force out Hicks at second base.

Noah Johnson came into the game to run for O’Hara at first base and Parker Meyers walked to fill the bases with Barke coming to the plate.

“Barke has been a consistant hitter all year and he came through once again,” Nienaber stated.

Medford had taken a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning but the Bucs responded by scoring two runs in the bottom of the first.

Fering and Hicks each walked to begin the game. Fering was eliminated on a fielder’s choice off the bat of O’Hara. Hicks would eventually score on a ground ball out and O’Hara would come around to score on a sacrifice fly to give the Bucs a 2-1 lead.

BEA would maintain their one-run lead until the top of the fifth inning when Medford tallied two runs to go on top 3-2. The Bucs scored two runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth to go back on top 4-3.

Medford scored once in the sixth inning to tie the game and set the stage for Barke’s seventh-inning heroics.

O’Hara pitched all seven innings to pick up the win.

BEA advances to the second round where they will face Sibley East in a 5 p.m. game on Tuesday, May 31, at Walsh Field in Gaylord.

BEA 19, Worthington 6

Blue Earth Area’s baseball team had their highest run output of the season when they played their last regular-season contest at Worthington against the Trojans on Tuesday, May 24.

The Bucs’ offense erupted for 19 runs on the strength of 12 hits. A nine-run seventh inning put the game away and sent BEA back home with a 19-6 triumph over their Big South Conference foes.

The Bucs jumped on Worthington’s starting pitcher for five runs in the top of the first inning.

Luke Schonborn led off the game with a walk but was caught stealing second base.

Kean Hicks followed with a double and Logan O’Hara reached on an error to put runners at the corners with one out.

A balk by the pitcher allowed Hicks to score and O’Hara to advance to second base. Caleb Langager came in as a courtesy runner for O’Hara at second base.

Parker Meyers was hit by a pitch to give the Bucs runners at first and second with one out.

A single by Nick Barke resulted in both Langager and Meyers scoring to give the Bucs a 3-0 lead.

Adam Schavey and Anthony Carr were each hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Carson Sturtz lined a double to left field to plate Barke and Schavey and put BEA on top 5-0 after half an inning of play.

Worthington pushed two runs across the plate in both the first and second inning to cut BEA’s lead to 5-4 after two complete innings

The Bucs took advantage of miscues by the Trojans to score three more times in the top of the third inning.

Dropped third strikes and errors resulted in a run by Schavey with Carr reaching first base.

Another error by Worthington sent Carr to second base and a passed ball enabled Carr to race safely to third base.

The Trojans then recorded two strikeouts and almost got out of the inning without any further damage.

However, Hicks hit an opposite-field single to right field to bring home Carr with BEA’s seventh run of the game.

After Hicks stole second base, O’Hara singled and an error on the play allowed Hicks to score and give BEA an 8-4 lead.

The score remained the same until the sixth inning when both teams scored two runs to make the score 10-6 in favor of the Bucs.

A combination of walks, hit batters, singles and Worthington errors resulted in nine runs for BEA in the top of the seventh inning to make the final score 19-6.

Hicks and Barke each had two hits for the Bucs while Hicks and Sturtz each had a double.

Sturtz led the team with three runs batted in. Barke and Soren Fering each drove in two.

The Bucs used seven pitchers during the game. O’Hara started on the mound and was followed by Taylor Davids, Carr, Langager, Barke, Abram Kokos and Fering.