The Lady Bulldog softball team finished the week 4-1 to improve to 14-1 overall. 

 

The girls have scored 117 runs in 15 games and the team is batting .351. They have 29 doubles, three triples and six home runs and their pitchers have na ERA of 0.93.

 

 

Tuesday was Parent's Night and Becker’s bats came alive after a shutout the night before, throttling Monticello 11-1 in five innings.  

 

The scoring began in the second inning when Alexa Hanowski and Ellie Schwartz each drove in a run.  

 

After the Magic scored a run in the top of the third, Becker plated four more runs to push the lead to 6-1.  Erika Schwartz, Lindsey Lorette and Hanowski each had RBI singles in the inning.  

 

The Bulldogs tallied three more in the fourth with Erika Schwartz driving in a run on her third hit of the night and Lindsey Lorette knocking in two  more runners on a double over the right fielders head.  

 

The game ended in the fifth when Emma Buntrock drove a two-out double to deep right center to put she and another runner on second and third.  Hailey Fitzpatrick singled up the middle to score both runs to make the final 11-1.  

 

Haley Harmon picked up the win, going five innings,  allowing one run on four hits.  She didn't walk a batter and struck out nine.

 

 

Monday following a three-game weekend tournament, Becker was right back on the field taking on the Milaca Wolves.  Milaca entered the game in second place in the conference and they were looking to close the gap between the first place Bulldogs and themselves.  

 

The game turned into a true pitchers duel between Becker’s Brianna Corey and the Wolves’ Hannah Johnson.  Each pitcher fired strikes and each defense backed them up with several stellar plays.  With very few scoring threats by either team, the zeros quickly filled the scoreboard and by the end of seven, both teams headed to extra innings tied at 0-0.  

 

In the bottom of the ninth, the Bulldogs finally put up their first real scoring threat, only to be thwarted when Johnson picked up two big strikeouts with the bases full to push the game further down the line.

 

The Wolves had scattered a few hits throughout the game, but didn't put up their fist real threat until the top of the 12th inning.  

 

After a one-out error put a runner on base, the Wolves picked up a single to center.  The runner on first tried going to third on the hit, but Alexa Hanowski came up with a strong throw to nail her at third to get the second out.  The following batter laced another single to right center field and again the runner from first tried going to third, but this time Mckenzie Demant fired a strike to Lindsey Lorette at third for the final out of the inning.  

 

Finally, in the bottom of the 13th inning, Becker was able to put the ball in play on the ground and forced the Wolves into committing errors.  Hailey Fitzpatrick hit a sharp ground ball to the shortstop whose throw to first sailed into right field, allowing Fitzpatrick to move to second base.  The next batter up was Sam Lorette and she laid down a nice bunt.  That throw also sailed into right and Fitzpatrick trotted home with the games only run and a 1-0 win.  

 

Brianna Corey picked up the win, going all 13 innings.  She allowed only five hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out six.  

 

Johnson was the tough luck loser as she went 12+ innings and allowed seven hits.  She walked three but baffled the Bulldog hitters by striking out 20 batters.

 

Becker finished in third place at their annual home tournament last Saturday.  

 

 

In the quarterfinals, Becker made quick work of Richfield, beating them 10-0 in five innings.  

 

After putting up a run in the first, Payton Williams blew the game open with a three-run home run in the bottom of the second inning.  It was her fist varsity home run.  

Four more runs crossed the plate in the third, highlighted by a two-run single by Fitzpatrick.  Sam Lorette drove in the final two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.  

Corey picked up the win.  She allowed five hits and didn't walk a batter while striking out six.

 

 

In the semi-finals, the Bulldogs ran into a solid Park Center team and the game quickly turned into a pitchers duel.  

 

The Pirates got on the board in the top of the third when their leadoff hitter walked and later scored on an error.  

 

Jason Baune’s team struggled to string anything together and the score remained 1-0 entering the bottom of the seventh.

 

 Erika Schwartz singled to lead off the inning and she moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Harmon.  Sydney Lamott came in to run for Schwartz and after a strikeout for the second out, Hanowski hit an infield single.  Coach Baune tried to send Lamott to the plate, but the Pirates made the play and got the final out at the plate to make the final 1-0.  

 

Harmon took the loss on the mound, going all seven innings and allowed four hits and a walk while striking out seven.

 

 

With the loss, Becker moved to the third place game against Rocori.  

 

After two scoreless innings, Becker’s bats came to life and they plated three runs in the third. Williams, Fitzpatrick and Sam Lorette began the inning with three straight singles and all three came around to score.

 

Two more runs scored in the fourth on a Sam Lorette double to make the score 5-0.

 

The Spartans answered with an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth.  

 

The score remained 5-1 until the top of the seventh when Becker put up four more runs to extend their lead.  Emma Buntrock had a single in the inning and Sydney Lamott followed with an RBI double. 

 

 The Spartans put up a fight in the bottom of the inning with two runs, but couldn’t overcome the deficit and Becker closed them out to take third place.

 

Corey picked up the win, going all seven innings, allowing six hits and walking three.  She had seven strikeouts.

 

“Overall, I was pleased with our play on Saturday,” said Baune.  “It would have been nice to reach the championship game, but we ran into a very tough pitcher in the semifinal game.  I thought our pitchers did a great job.  It was good for us to see some quality competition and play in a close game.”

 

The Bulldogs hosted Buffalo Friday (weather permitting) and results will appear in next week’s Citizen. They the travel to Foley Tuesday and Elk River Thursday to close out the regular season.