Blooming Prairie keeps season alive

Published 9:40 am Monday, May 25, 2009

Blooming Prairie fought off a 2-0 first round loss to Hope Lutheran to beat Waterville/Elysian/Morristown 7-2 to keep its season alive in the Section 1A softball tournament at Todd Park Saturday.

BP will play Hope Lutheran again in an elimination game on Tuesday at 5 p.m. in Todd Park.

The Awesome Blossoms (19-6 overall) finally got their bats going against W/E/M (16-9 overall) as they came up with 12 hits after getting just six hits in a subsection loss to the Bucs last Wednesday.

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“We just played with more energy (this time),” said BP third baseman Katelin Strand, who went two-for-four with a double. “We were coming off a tough loss and they’re a conference rival. So we really wanted to take them out.”

Tricia DeBoer, a lefty slap-hitter, gave BP a 3-2 lead in the fourth when she drilled a two-out double into centerfield two score two runs against a W/E/M defense that had all nine of it’s defenders playing in. W/E/M pitcher Brittney Fritz had retired DeBoer in her five previous at-bats when the freshman was trying to reach base by bunting.

But it made all the difference when DeBoer swung way as she also knocked in a run with single in the sixth inning to make it 5-2.

“For a while she quit (swinging away), but they come in so tight on her she’s able to pop that ball through,” BP head coach Alison Mach said. “That’s tough to defend, because you can drag, slap or pop it through. That’s why she’s a our leadoff hitter.”

DeBoer said she varies when she’s looking to bunt and when she’s looking to make solid contact.

“I’ll go with the swinging approach sometimes,” she said. “It kind of depends on the pitcher.”

The win was a big one for a BP team that has gone 0-for-2 in the Section 1A tournament the past few years and things weren’t looking good early on when the Bucs took a 2-0 lead after Nicole Brockmiller knocked in a run with a double and scored on a groundout by Morgan Herda.

“That was tough, but we just kept our heads in it and we knew we couldn’t give up any more than two,” Strand said. “We just worked out of it.”

Against the Patriots (16-5 overall), the Blossoms struck out 14 times as Felicia Meyer controlled the game for HL.

BP managed just two hits, but it stranded a runner on second in the top of the first when Strand struck out and a left a runner on third in the top of the sixth when Jordan Noble popped out to third base.

“She’s very good, but she’s not un-hittable,” Strand said of Meyer. “We just have to patient and if we play well we can beat them on Tuesday.”

HL scored its two runs in the fourth without getting a hit out of the infield. Angie Wenzel was hit by a pitch and scored on a BP throwing error, and Christine Klug had a bunt single and scored on a bunt single by Shaina Laska. BP’s Erica Manske pitched out of the jam by striking out two straight hitters.

“We played a good game against Hope Lutheran. We just had one bad inning,” Mach said. “We’re excited to play them again and I think we can do good things. We’ve got to play sound defense and we’ve seen (their pitcher) now so we can prepare even better.”

If BP can get past HL Tuesday, they would have to beat Chatfield (19-5 overall) twice to get to the Class ‘A’ state softball tournament. The Gophers beat the Patriots 1-0 with a first inning run Saturday.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1

HL 0 0 0 2 0 0 X 2 3 0

BP pitching: Erica Manske (L), 6 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 2 R, 1 ER, 7 K, HBP

BP hitting: Tricia DeBoer, 0-for-3; Jordan Noble, 0-for-3; Resha Koster, 1-for-3, SB; Katelin Strand, 0-for-3; Tayla Jones, 0-for-3; Mag Fogarty, 0-for-3; Hunter Henderson, 0-for-2; Anna Peterson, 1-for-2; Manske, 0-for-2

HL pitching: Felicia Meyer (W), 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 14 K

HL hitting: Lacey Ellinghuysen, 1-for-2, BB; Meyer, 0-for-1, 2 BBs; Megan Luehman, 0-for-3; Christine Kling, 1-for-3; Lindsey Cafferty, 0-for-3; Shaina Laska, 1-for-3, RBI; Madison Ludford, 0-for-3; Jo Moore, 0-for-2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

BP 0 0 1 2 1 2 1 7 12 3

WEM 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 5 3

BP pitching: Manske (W), 7 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 ER, 7 K

BP hitting: DeBoer, 2-for-4, double, 3 RBIs, SB; Noble, 2-for-3, RBI, R; Koster, 1-for-3, RBI; Strand, 2-for-4, double, R; Jones, 0-for-3; Fogarty, 2-for-4, 2 SB, R; Henderson, 2-for-4, RBI; Peterson, 1-for-3, 3 R; Manske, 0-for-2; Samantha Johnson, R

WEM pitching: Brittney Fritz (L), 7 IP, 12 H, 7 ER, 4 K, HBP

WEM hitting: Morgan Herda, 0-for-4; Danielle Mathias, 0-for-4; Cassie Masberg, 1-for-4; Alicia Reinke, 0-for-3; Kayla Holling, 1-for-2; Nicole Brockmiller, 2-for-3, double, RBI; Stacy Reinke, 1-for-3; Morgan Herda, 0-for-3, RBI; Stephanie Lindahl, 0-for-2, BB