Wednesday, the Becker Bulldog girls softball team hosted the first two rounds of the Section 8AAA playoffs. As the #1 seed, Becker received a first round bye. In the prelim game, #9 seed St. Cloud Apollo took down #8 seed Sartell, 8-0 and advanced to challenge the Bulldogs in the second game.
Becker 4, Apollo 0
Becker got on the board in the bottom of the first when Payton Williams led off with a single. Some aggressive base running allowed her to move to third base on a Hailey Fitzpatrick bunt. Sam Lorette proceeded to ground out to shortstop, allowing Williams to score.
In a great pitcher’s duel, the score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth when Ellie Schwartz, Sydney Lamott and Williams hit consecutive one-out singles to score one run. Fitzpatrick followed with a sacrifice fly to bring in another run making it 3-0.
Erika Schwartz was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth and pinch runner Payton Bernstrom ended up scoring on a base hit by Ellie Schwartz to make the score 4-0. That would be the final as the Eagles never mounted much of a threat against Haley Harmon.
Leading hitters for Becker were Williams who went 2-for-3 with an RBI, Harmon, who was 2-for-3 and Schwartz, who was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a stolen base.
Harmon got the win, going all seven innings, allowing just two hits and a walk. She struck out six.
“While we had some struggles at the plate, I was very impressed with our ability to lay down bunts and move runners around,” said Head Coach Jason Baune. “Our aggressiveness on the bases also helped us score a couple runs. The defense was once again solid behind Harmon and Sam Lorette did a great job of calling the game from behind the plate.”
With the win, Becker advances to the semifinals where they will take on Monticello at home Monday at 3 p.m. Win or lose, the Bulldogs will be home again Wednesday afternoon.
The section championship game will be Thursday afternoon and — if necessary — a second game will be played Friday.
