The Becker Blast 12U gold team finished third in the silver division of the Northern Nationals in Eagan last weekend. The Blast began the tournament Thursday morning, taking on the Stillwater Black team that had a regular season record of 16-7-1.
The girls played a great game defensively and came away with a 4-1 win in their first pool play game.
That advanced them to the winners side of pool play where they took on the Yankton River Bandits from South Dakota Friday morning.
The girls played pretty well, but fell by a score of 7-1.
That set them up against the Cooper Armstrong Heat for their final pool play game Friday afternoon. The girls came out and scored three runs in the top of the first, but gave up six in the bottom of the inning. Despite putting quite a few runners on the bases, the Blast fell by a final score of 7-4.
Finishing fifth in their pool of eight teams put the girls into the silver bracket with 27 other teams that began later Friday afternoon. Becker received a first round bye for Friday’s late game.
Saturday morning, they took on Eden Prairie Red.
The girls put on an offensive show, scoring 21 runs in just four innings to win 21-4.
Their next game would be against a very good Forest Lake team that had a regular season record of 22-1-1. It was a well-played game, but things were looking bleak heading into the final inning as the Becker girls trailed 7-3. The Blast showed they wouldn't give up and scored seven runs to take the win and advance to the semifinals Sunday.
In the semifinal game, the girls took on another great team from Rosemount that entered the tournament with a regular season record of 22-1.
It was a back-and-forth affair early, but some big. two-out hits gave Becker the 7-3 win and advanced them to the winner's bracket final as one of two undefeated teams. There, they took on a very talented Chisago Lakes team. One tough inning where Chisago Lakes put up four runs turned out to be too much to recover from and the girls fell by a score of 5-2.
With the loss, the Blast moved into the loser's bracket where they immediately headed to another field to take on another solid team from Hopkins. Both teams had on their hitting shoes, but unfortunately Hopkins played much better defense and took the game by a final of 15-6.
The team finished in third place out of 27 teams in the silver bracket and came home with medals and a trophy to display. Chicago Lakes went on to beat Hopkins by a score of 1-0 to secure the championship.
The girls finished their summer play with a record of 24-11-2 and a lot of great memories.
Team members are Emily Meyer, Ellie Gallus, Kayla Denny, Nevaeh Gardner, Hannah Bartlett, Nevaeh Bjorlin, Maurissa Crossland, Lilyana Parga, Kurstyn Patnode, Kennedy Drehmel, and Maddie Sherman.
Coaches are Maddy Mohrman, Marikate Wegeleben and Jason Baune.
14U Blast
The 14U Becker Blast gold team finished third at state last weekend. This is the same team that won the Becker Freedom Days tournament mid-June.
