The Becker Bandits amateur baseball team saw its season end last weekend with a pair of losses in the Sauk Valley League playoffs. Becker fell 9-8 last Saturday to the St. Joseph Joes, while Sunday saw the Monticello Polecats pile up an impressive offensive performance in a 13-0 shutout win.

Against St. Joe, Becker took an 8-2 lead into the 8th inning, only to fall victim to another comeback by the host Joes.

Matt Krenz was the top Bandit at the plate, going 3-for-5 with two rbi, while Connor Rolf and Mitch Louden also each added two hits. Becker had a total of 10 hits on the day, but it wasn’t enough to eke out the upset victory.

Matthew Moe was solid on the mound, going seven innings, scattering nine hits while walking four and giving up six total runs, three of which were earned. Cam Fischer came on in relief and took the loss with a 1.2 inning, three runs allowed performance.

Saturday’s loss was especially painful because the Polecats also lost that afternoon in a major upset, meaning Becker had to face the higher seed in Sunday’s loser’s bracket game.

It was all Monticello in that game, with Becker managing just four hits, one apiece from Louden, Krenz, Zach Wenner and Luke Schumacher.

Becker’s defense was spotty, as errors led to seven unearned runs for the Polecats.

Weston Schug took the mound for the start and went four innings, giving up seven runs, four of which were earned. Andrew Kolbinger finished up the game on the mound, going two innings and striking out five batters and yielding six runs, two of which were earned.

Becker finished the season with by far the youngest roster in the Sauk Valley League.  Manager Cole Hanson hopes his team will use this year as a learning experience, as it looks to tighten up its defense for the 2022 campaign. For the most part this season, Becker’s pitching and offense was good enough to keep the team in most games.

As always, Hanson will also look to add any local baseball talent who would like to contribute to the team next year.