The Becker boys baseball team, seeded #8 in the Section 5AAA playoffs, lost their first game to St. Cloud Tech Tuesday, then lost to Sauk Rapids Thursday to end their season.
The first game was played against the mighty Tech Tigers, who were boasting a 20-0 undefeated record. Becker came into the matchup at 7-13 and gave the Tigers a good game, eventually falling 4-0, played at Big Lake HS.
Becker mustered just two hits (Blomquist and Hanson) off Tech’s Austin Nikolas and Trevor Koenig. Koenig was the winning pitcher, giving up one hit, two walks and struck out 10 batters.
Matt Moe started on the mound for Becker and he went the first three innings, recording 50 pitches. Kreeden Blomquist came on in relief and had the one bad inning that scored all the runs.
Dawson Hill came on in the sixth and threw nine pitches.
Tech was only able to muster seven hits in the game and all their runs came in a four-run, third-inning outburst. It started with a hit batter, then a double to score the first run, then a single to score another, then a two-run blast.
Nikolas went 3-for-3 and Logan Aleshire had two RBIs.
Elimination Game
The Bulldogs dropped into the lower bracket to take on the #5-seeded Sauk Rapids Storm (8-13) Thursday with the hope of advancing in the playoffs.
Again, the Bulldogs battled to the very end, but ended up losing the contest in eight innings by the score of 9-8 at Bob Cross Field in Sauk Rapids.
Kendal Hanson started the game on the hill for Becker and he went three innings and took the loss. Weston Schug relieved him in the third and Matt Moe finished off the game, pitching in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth innings.
The Storm featured two pitchers, Kordell Lazer (two innings) and Brady Posch (six innings). The Storm scored once in the second, three times in the third, three more times in the fifth and tallied two in the eighth for the win.
Becker scored once in the first, six in the second and one in the eighth. Zach Halvorson had three hits and Andrew Berglund had two while scoring twice.
