Blue Earth Area’s John Nelson slides safely into home before the Jaguars’ catcher, Lane Kruse, can apply the tag.

The Blue Earth Area baseball team improved their season record to 1-1 with a 17-1, five-inning victory over the Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman Jaguars on Tuesday, March 31 at Veterans Field in Blue Earth.

BEA starting pitcher Brody Eckmann threw four innings, allowing one unearned run on two hits while walking one batter and striking out seven.

“On a cold and windy day like it was during the game, a pitcher has to throw strikes, challenge the hitters and rely on his defense,” Bucs’ head coach Lee Hodges said after the game. “Brody had good command of the strike zone and worked his off-speed pitches very effectively.”

Myles Moore relieved Eckmann to start the fifth inning and recorded the final three outs of the game, Moore gave up one hit, walked one batter and had two strikeouts.

The Bucs scored their runs in bunches. They tallied four runs in their half of the second inning, six in the third inning and seven in the fourth stanza.

After holding the Jaguars scoreless in the first two innings, the Bucs’ John Nelson led off the bottom of the second inning with a four-pitch walk. A line drive single by Bennett Zabel past the Jaguars’ second baseman and a walk to Eckmann loaded the bases with zero outs.

Jacob Gambell hit a slow roller to the third baseman and Nelson slid home safely ahead of the throw to give the Maroon and Gold a 1-0 lead.

Following a strikeout, Moore grounded out to the pitcher which scored Zabel with the Bucs’ second run and advanced Eckmann to third base and Nolan Sturtz, who was a courtesy runner for Gambell, to second base.

Caiden Sickler was hit by a pitch to fill the bases up again.

A single by Brody Haugh to left field plated Eckmann and Sturtz to extend BEA’s lead to 4-0.

ML/GHEC/T scored their lone run in the top of the third inning to cut BEA’s lead to 4-1.

The Bucs took advantage of three walks, two hits and a number of passed balls and wild pitches to score six runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 10-1 lead.

The Jaguars were retired in order in the top of the fourth inning while the Bucs exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the inning.

Eckmann walked and Sturtz, who was batting for Gambell, singled with Eckmann moving to third base. A walk to Connor Minor loaded the bases with nobody out. A single by Moore drove in Eckmann and left the bases loaded. A walk to Sickler brought home the second run of the inning.

Minor scored the third run of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Haugh with the other two baserunners holding at their bases. Logan Rademaker’s single loaded the bases again and brought Nelson to the plate.

Nelson was hit by a pitch to score Moore and make the score 14-1.

Ethan Farnham’s single drove in Sickler and a walk to Christopher Murray brought home Rademaker. Another walk, this time to Sturtz, scored Nelson with the final run of the game.

The final stat line showed BEA scoring 17 runs on nine hits while ML/GHEC/T tallied one run on four hits. Each team committed one error.

While Eckmann and Moore only gave up a total of two walks, three different Jaguars’ pitchers walked 11 Buccaneer batters.

Up next for the Bucs is a game on Monday, April 6, at Minnesota Valley Lutheran in New Ulm. They host Jackson County Central on Tuesday, April 7 and New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva on Friday, April 10.

LCWM 16, BEA 6

The Blue Earth Area Buccaneers opened their 2026 baseball season with a loss on the road against the Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Knights on Thursday, March 26. The game went five innings with LCWM winning 16-6.

The Knights took the lead in the bottom of the first inning. With runners on the corners and one out, an infield error gave the Knights a 1-0 lead. LCWM pushed three more runs across the plate to take a 4-0 lead after one complete inning.

In the bottom of the second inning, a lead-off double followed by another two-bagger gave the Knights their fifth run of the game. The Bucs got the next two LCWM batters out on a strike out and a line out and were one out away from getting out of the inning. However, a walk, a hit batsman and three more hits led to five more runs for the home team and a 10-0 lead after two innings.

LCWM added two more runs in the bottom of the third inning.

The Bucs were held scoreless until the top of the fifth inning when they tallied five hits on their way to a six-run inning.

With one out, BEA’s Brody Eckmann reached base on a dropped third strike. He moved to second when Nolan Sturtz was hit by a pitch. A single by Connor Minor loaded the bases and brought Brody Haugh to the plate.

Haugh delivered a line-drive double to left field which scored Eckmann and Sturtz and advanced Minor to third base. Following a walk to Caiden Sickler the bases were full again. The next batter, John Nelson, singled to score Minor but Sickler was out at second base.

A single by Myles Moore drove in Haugh with the Bucs’ fourth run of the game with Nelson holding up at second base. A double by Logan Rademaker to left field plated Nelson and Moore with BEA’s fifth and sixth runs of the game and made the score 14-6 in LCWM’s favor heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. The Knights scored twice in their half of the inning to end the game with LCWM claiming the 16-6 victory.

LCWM scored 16 runs on 17 hits and did not commit an error. BEA scored six runs on five hits while committing two errors.

Starting pitcher Landon Sanderson was credited with the victory for the Knights after hurling three innings. He did not allow a hit while walking one batter and recording nine strikeouts.

Brody Eckmann took the loss for the Bucs. The starting pitcher gave up nine runs (seven earned) on eight hits in two innings of work. He struck out four batters and walked one.