The Becker Bulldog American Legion baseball team continues to struggle as they dropped three games in the past week to drop to 2-7 on the year.

 

The St. Cloud Chutes scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and another in the bottom of the eighth to defeat Becker, 5-4 in the first game of two Monday at Dick Putz Field.

 

The Bulldogs led the entire game, 4-0 until the seventh when the Chutes tied it, then walked off with the win in the eighth.

 

Kendal Hanson started and pitched 5-2/3 innings for the Bulldogs. He gave up nine hits and his defense hurt him with four errors.

 

“He had a great start,” said Coach Kevin Krenz.

 

Becker got their first two runs in the third when Nathanael Nelson tripled to drive in one run, then scored later in the inning.

 

In the seventh, Zach Davidson got hit by a pitch and Blomquist followed that with a walk. Matt Moe drove both runners in with a single.

 

Hanson had six strikeouts in the game, while walking two, hitting one batter and allowing just one hit.

 

Jackson Jangula had two hits and two RBI for the Chutes, who finished with six hits.

 

Weston Schug had two hits and Moe had two hits and two RBI for Becker.

 

In the second game of the night Monday, the Bulldogs fell by six runs to the St. Cloud 76ers at Faber Field.

 

St. Cloud jumped on the board first with a run in the bottom of the second inning, but Becker tied it up two innings later in the fourth when Matt Krenz reached base on an error and Jose Bue reached first on a HBP. Brenton Arbuckle singled to score Krenz.

 

In the bottom of the fifth, St. Cloud scored twice on a walk, a triple and an error.

 

In the bottom of the sixth, they tallied four more runs on two hits, two walks and another error.

 

Last Thursday, the Bulldogs traveled to Nisswa and lost the game on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the seventh inning.

 

“We just haven’t been hitting the ball,” said Coach Krenz.

 

Becker finished with just two hits.

 

Moe pitched five great innings giving up three walks and five hits while striking out two. Schug came on in relief and gave up three hits with one walk and had two strikeouts.

 

Mason Seeley was 1-for-1 and Krenz was 1-for-3 for Becker’s two hits.

 

The Bulldogs have a record of 2-7 and played their final two games of the regular season late this week. Look for the results in next week’s Citizen-Tribune.