The Becker Lady Bulldogs softball team advanced to the finals of the Section 5AAA playoffs Thursday with a win over Zimmerman.

 

 

The Bulldogs hosted conference foe, Zimmerman, in the section semifinals and came out swinging.

 

To start, Emily Lamott walked and scored in  the first inning to put the home team up by one.  

 

Becker added another run in the second and threatened for more, but a bases loaded line drive to right field turned into a double play for the Thunder ending the threat and leaving it 2-0.  

Weise led off the third with her 11th home run to push the lead to 3-0.  

 

The Bulldogs blew the game wide open in the bottom of the fourth when nine batters came to the plate and five runners came around to score.  Kaylyn Wiehle, Kurstyn Patnode, Cammie Varney, Krista Paulson, and Cadence Koste all singled in the inning.  

 

The Thunder plated a run in the fifth to make it 8-1, but Becker answered back with three more runs to end the game due to the run rule, 11-1.  Wiehle, Varney, and Paulson all hit doubles in the fifth.

 

Varney and Paulson each finished the day with three hits, while Koste, Wiehle and Patnode each added two.  Weise was 1-for-1 with a home run and three walks.   She also picked up the win, going all five innings allowing a run on two hits and striking out six Thunder batters.

 

With the win, the Bulldogs advance to Tuesday's winner's bracket final against #2 seeded Rocori.  The winner of that game will advance to the section championship Thursday, while the loser will have to attempt to battle back through the loser's bracket  Tuesday and Thursday.  Game times and locations are TBD. 

 

 

Last Friday, the Bulldogs hosted Princeton in their regular season finale.  It was also Senior Night for Jason Baune’s four seniors — Wiehle, Jaida Johnson, Morgan Luberda and Paige De Luque.  

 

Becker got on the board first when Lamott walked to lead off the bottom of the first and eventually scored on an RBI groundout.  

 

The Bulldogs added three more runs in the bottom of the third when Luberda reached on an error and after a fielder's choice, Weise drilled a two-run homer to make the score 3-0.  Krista Paulson followed with a single and ended up scoring on an Avery Tamm single to push the lead to 4-0.  

 

While Becker would threaten in numerous occasions, there would be no more scoring and the final was 4-0.  

 

Weise picked up the win going all seven innings and allowing only three hits while striking out 11 Tiger batters.

 

The win closed out the regular season with a record of 15-5 and clinched the #1 seed in the Section 5AAA playoffs.  

 

 

In the first game of the section playoffs, Becker hosted #8 seed St. Cloud Apollo Tuesday afternoon.

 

The Bulldogs got on the board first when Lamott led off with a double and came in to score on a double off the bat of Emma Eickhoff.  

 

After a scoreless second, the Bulldogs added three more runs in the third.  Weise got it started with a solo home run and Tamm added a two-run double later in the inning.  

 

Apollo answered in the top of the fourth with two runs, but Becker responded with four more runs in the bottom of the inning to push the lead to 8-2. Eickhoff and Cadence Koste did the big damage in the inning with doubles.

 

The Bulldogs would tack on a couple insurance runs in the fifth to go up by eight and added another  run in the sixth to make the final 11-2.  

 

Koste was 3-for-3, while Lamott, Weise, Eickhoff and Tamm all added two hits apiece.  Weise's home run was her 10th of the season and the junior is the first Bulldog to ever hit double digit home runs in a single season.  She also picked up the win with five innings of two-run ball.  She allowed three hits and struck out 12.  

 

Eickhoff finished things off with 2 shutout innings.