Bucs lose heartbreaker to St. James
After splitting a doubleheader with the Jackson County Huskies
The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers suffered another tough loss on the baseball diamond when they fell to the host St. James Saints, 6-5, in nine innings on Tuesday, April 23.
The Bucs held a 5-3 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Saints rallied to score two runs to tie the game and send the contest into extra innings.
BEA collected all five of their runs in the first three innings of the game. They scored once in the first inning, three times in the second and added one more run in the third.
Their run in the first inning came after Caleb Langager and Carter Rosenau each walked to start the game. Langager scored on an error to give the Bucs a 1-0 lead, but the Saints scored in the bottom of the inning to tie the game 1-1.
BEA’s Kaden Ackerman was hit by a pitch to start the top of the second inning. A single by Braden Rhey put runners on first and second with none out.
A sacrifice bunt by Hayden Vereide allowed Ackerman to move to third base and Rhey to second. A single to left field by Matthew Klabunde scored Ackerman and advanced Rhey to third base.
Caleb Langager’s ground out to the second baseman brought Rhey home with the Bucs’ second run of the inning and moved Klabunde to second base.
A single by Rosenau drove home Klabunde with BEA’s third run of the inning to put the Bucs in the lead 4-1.
The Bucs’ final run of the game came in the top of the third inning. Noah Dahl was hit by a pitch and advanced to second base when Ackerman walked. Rhey grounded out to the first baseman with Dahl moving to third base and Ackerman to second.
Dahl scored on a ground out by Vereide to the shortstop to give BEA a 5-1 lead.
St. James added two runs in the bottom of the third to cut the Bucs’ advantage to 5-3 before evening the score at 5-5 in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Taylor Davids pitched the first six innings for BEA and allowed three runs, one earned. He gave up three hits while walking one batter and striking out nine.
Dahl came on in the seventh inning and was charged with three runs, two earned. He gave up five hits and walked two batters.
Rosenau, Davids, Rhey and Klabunde each had one hit for BEA.
JCC 19, BEA 2
It only took five innings for the Huskies to defeat the Bucs 19-2 in the opening game of a double header on Thursday, April 18.
JCC scored two times in the bottom of the first inning and added three runs in both the second and third innings. The Huskies then exploded for 11 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to put the game away.
JCC outhit BEA 14-5. The Bucs committed five errors to zero for the Huskies.
Taylor Davids took the loss for the Bucs after pitching three innings and surrendering eight runs, five earned. He walked one batter and struck out eight.
Kaden Ackerman and Carter Rosenau combined to pitch the final inning for BEA.
Rosenau had two hits for the Bucs, including a double. Peyton O’Hara also doubled for the Bucs.
BEA 6, JCC 4
The Bucs rebounded to win the second game of their double header against the Huskies.
BEA was the home team for the second game of the double header and jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Caleb Langager and Carter Rosenau each singled to start off in the first inning. Taylor Davids was safe on a fielder’s choice with Langager being thrown out at third base and Rosenau advancing to second.
A double by Peyton O’Hara scored Rosenau with Davids stopping at third base. A single by Noah Dahl brought home both Davids and O’Hara and gave BEA a 3-0 lead.
The Bucs added single runs in the third, fourth and sixth innings to account for their six runs. The Huskies scored once in the fourth, twice in the sixth and once in the seventh to total their four runs.
BEA finished with six hits while committing four errors. JCC had five hits. They were charged with three errors.
O’Hara had two hits, including a double, to pace the Bucs at the plate.
Dahl started on the mound and pitched five and two thirds innings to notch the victory. He gave up three runs, one earned, on four hits and four walks. He struck out five batters.
Langager pitched one and one third innings of relief and was charged with one earned run on one hit. Langager walked one batter and struck out three.