Anthony Carr delivers a pitch in the Bucs’ game against Minnesota Valley Lutheran.

A look at the statistics shows Blue Earth Area and Minnesota Valley Lutheran appeared to have played a pretty even game when the two teams met in an elimination game in the Section 2AA baseball tournament.

In fact, the Bucs outhit the Chargers by a 4-3 margin while each team committed one error. MVL made the most of their opportunities however and defeated BEA 4-0 at Veterans Field in Blue Earth to bring the Maroon and Gold’s baseball season to an end.

The Bucs’ Anthony Carr and the Chargers’ Josh Giefer were both effective on the mound.

BEA had their scoring chances. The hometown team loaded the bases with only one out in the bottom of the sixth inning only to have Giefer strike out the next two batters looking.

And while each team only made one error, the Bucs’ error proved to be costly as it allowed three unearned runs to come across the plate in the top of the fifth inning.

The game moved along at a fast pace with both pitchers pounding the strike zone. Carr and Giefer each walked four batters during the game. Carr threw a total of 105 pitches while Giefer had 100.

MVL played ‘small ball’ to score their first run in the top of the second inning.

After a leadoff single, the next batter hit a sacrifice bunt to move the runner to second base. Carr hit the next batter with a pitch. Both runners stole a base to put runners on second and third. The lead runner scored on a perfectly-placed suicide squeeze bunt to give the Chargers a 1-0 lead. A throwing error and well-timed hits led to three more runs for MVL in the top of the fifth inning and their defense kept BEA from scoring.

The Bucs end their season with a 9-10 record.

On a side note, while the loss marked the final time the BEA high school team will take the field this season, it was also the last time the umpiring tandem of Tim and Rich Murry will be calling a baseball game in Blue Earth.

The duo are scheduled to call a couple more high school games this year and will umpire some amateur league baseball games this summer, but no more games in Blue Earth and no more baseball games at all after this summer.

Tim began umpiring baseball in 1979 while Rich says he got serious about umpiring in 1983.

“I actually umpired one American Legion game here in Blue Earth in 1980,” Murry recalls. “But, it was three years later before I really got started.”

The Murrys, who graduated from Delavan High School, are part of an umpiring family which began with their father Bill, who umped for 50 years. Tim and Rich have an older brother, Chuck, who also had a long stint as an umpire.

“We will still ump softball next year,” Rich mentions. “So we are not completely giving up umping.”

Sibley East 13, BEA 3

The Blue Earth Area Bucs baseball team traveled to Gaylord on Tuesday, May 31, to take on the Sibley East Wolverines in the second round of the Section 2A playoffs.

Although the Bucs took the early lead, it was the Wolverines who came out on top with a 13-3, six-inning victory.

BEA, the No. 6-seeded team in Section 2A, had advanced to the second round with a first-round victory over the Medford Tigers on May 26. No. 3-seeded Sibley East had opened the tournament with a 6-0 shutout over Blooming Prairie.

The Bucs took an early lead by scoring three runs in the top of the first inning.

Leadoff batter Soren Fering was hit by a pitch and advanced to second on Kean Hicks’ sacrifice bunt.

Logan O’Hara’s line drive single to center field brought Fering home with the first run of the game. Parker Meyers kept things going when he singled to left field with O’Hara advancing to second base.

The Wolverines recorded a strikeout for the second out of the inning but did not escape without further damage.

With Colton Hubly at the plate, O’Hara stole third base while Meyers swiped second base. A double by Hubly plated both runners and gave BEA a 3-0 edge.

The Bucs’ lead was shortlived, however. The Wolverines answered with four runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 4-3 lead.

Then, Sibley East added four more runs in the bottom of the second inning to go on top 8-3.

Meanwhile, the Wolverines’ pitcher, Jake Schmidt, allowed only one more hit for the rest of the game.

BEA’s Taylor Davids relieved starting pitcher Logan O’Hara in the second inning and shut down the Sibley East bats for the third, fourth and fifth innings. The Wolverines broke through for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to go up by 10 runs and end the game one inning early.

In addition to the first-inning hits by O’Hara, Meyers and Hubly, Davids was the only other Buccaneer batter to record a hit during the game.

Hubly had two runs batted in while O’Hara had one.

O’Hara took the loss for the Bucs who now are in a must-win situation in the double-elimination tournament. BEA faced Minnesota Valley Lutheran at Veterans Field on June 2.