Stearns County League baseball results

Final scores on Sunday afternoon games:

The Greenwald Cubs hosted Roscoe today. Final score: Cubs 10, Rangers 9. The hosts totaled 15 hits and 3 errors, with two pitchers taking the mound, Nick Radermacher going five innings and Clint Hilsgen the final four. Grant Schoenberg was the catcher.

The visiting Rangers totaled 11 hits and 3 errors. Four pitchers worked the mound for Roscoe, Justin Mackedanz going four innings, Jason Elmer going the 5th and 6th, Keegan Meagher in the 7th, and Brent Heinen pitching in the 7th, then closing the final two innings. RJ Leyendecker was the Rangers' catcher.

Greenwald is now 3-3 overall, after starting the season 0-3 in early May.

Other scores:
Spring Hill 27, Farming 2 (no lie, I heard it right from Randy Schoenberg)
He also reported that Lake Henry routed Meire Grove.

New Munich 4, Richmond 3
Lake Henry 19, Meire Grove 5

This Stearns County League amateur baseball update brought to you by:

Elrosa Saints hosting St.Martin on Friday night , lead 1-0 early on before trailing 4-1 - Bottom of 9th comeback plates four runs in a 5-4 win

A video clip of the first run scored by the Saints.

First off, a St.Martin fan named McKenna wishes her grandpa, Paul Lieser, Happy Birthday tonight.

The Saints lost an early 1-0 lead to fall behind 4-1. That score stood going into the 9th inning.

Aided by the great pitching of closer Ethan Vogt, the Saints' defense held the Martins in check in the top of the ninth inning, holding hope for a late rally.



With one out and one more run scored in the bottom of the ninth, Matt Middendorf launched a two-RBI single to tie the game at 4-all. Pat Illies was walked intentionally, bringing Steve Mueller to the plate. He proceeded to crack out an RBI-single down the third baseline on an 0-2 count pitch, sending Dustin Breitbach home for the game-winning run.

Final score: Elrosa 5, St.Martin 4, regular innings.

The win snaps a very painful 3-game losing streak for the Saints, as they head into summer for the final six weeks of the regular season.



The Saints next action is on Friday, June 5 under the lights of the home diamond against Stearns County League North rival Spring Hill. First pitch is 8:15pm.

Stearns County League Games on Sunday, May 31, at 1:30pm are:
Lake Henry at Meire Grove
Richmond at New Munich
Roscoe at Greenwald
Farming at Spring Hill

This Elrosa Saints amateur baseball update brought to you by:

Idiots - Kids will be kids, I guess (although the ones in question were 18)

"8 consumption tickets issued to Melrose Area High School seniors"
From the Melrose Beacon, Saturday May 23rd issue

Eight Melrose High School seniors were issued alcohol consumption related tickets following a party on Wednesday, May 13 starting at 9:13 p.m.

A Stearns County Sheriff's Deputy made a routine traffic stop in the area of Co. Rd. 13 in Grove Twp., south of Melrose, which eventually resulted in the arrest of seven students for minor consumption, and one 18-year-old for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). The first stop was for an 18-year-old Freeport boy.

The Melrose Police Department was called in on an agency assist at the juvenile party, which was being held at a rural residence about a mile south of Melrose.

The Stearns Sheriff's office estimated between 60 and 70 teenagers were at the party. Most of them "ran out the back of the barn" when the officers arrived.

The Sheriff's Department reported there were no kegs, but one car was found to have four 12-packs of beer.

Officials at Melrose Area High School said the students will be dealt with according to the school's alcohol policies already in place.

The senior class members had been on their Senior Class Trip earlier in the day.

Thursday night playoff results - Maple Lake Irish fastpitch wins Section 5A championship for second straight "state" berth

Fastpitch:
Section 3A Championship: Wabasso 20, Murray County Central 5 (5 innings) - Uuf Da! The Rabbits will take a 24-1 record to the state tournament

*Barnum faced Maple Lake in the Section 5A championship and lost 14-0 to the state-ranked Irish. Maple Lake, the four-time defending Central Minnesota Conference champions, will take a 21-3-1 record to the state tournament. It marks the second year in a row that the Irish won Section 5A.

I read that Osakis defeated Ogilvie 13-3 on Tuesday, in the loser's bracket semi-final to begin the 5A Final Four. The Silverstreaks then fell to Barnum 11-7 to end their season with a final record of 18-3. I believe that is the school record at Osakis for most wins in a fastpitch season.

Baseball:
*Section 5A-West Championship: Browerville/Eagle Valley 8, Upsala/Swanville Area 6 - The 4th-seeded Broncos repeated as sub-section champions.
*Section 5A-East Championship: Royalton 10, Pillager 5
All four teams advance to the Section 5A tournament next week.

*Section 6A-South: Morris knocked West Central Area out of the playoffs today in a 10-3 game, and tonight they are taking on Wheaton/Herman-Norcross in the championship game.

After 4 1/2 innings, the #1-seeded Warriors (17-5) lead the #3-seeded Tigers 7-6.
After 5 1/2 innings, the Tigers pulled ahead 8-7. Morris ultimately lost to WHN 9-8 in regular innings. Both teams advance to the 6A Final Four round.

Hawley won 14-5 over Parkers Prairie in the Sub-Section 6A-North title game.

New London-Spicer was knocked out of the Section 6AA playoffs with a 10-0 loss to Staples-Motley in six innings.

More will be posted on Friday morning.

Stearns County League games coming up this weekend, starting with St.Martin at Elrosa on Friday night under the lights of Saints Field

On Friday, May 29 at 8:15, the Elrosa Saints host the St.Martin Martins out of the south half of the Stearns County League. It will be an important game for the Saints, who are reeling from a three-game losing streak.

Games on Sunday at 1:30pm are:
Lake Henry at Meire Grove
Richmond at New Munich
Roscoe at Greenwald
Farming at Spring Hill

Jaguars Track and Field members perform at Section 5A meet at St.John's University - Lensing advances to State in two events

Senior track and field sensation Heidi Lensing will perform at the Class A state tournament next week in two events, as she won Section 5A titles in both the High Jump (5'2") and Long Jump (17' 2 1/2")...quite a run for the senior as she attempts to earn more state hardware to her collection.

She also qualified for the 300-meter Hurdles for sections, finishing fifth in today's meet with a time of 49.71 seconds.

Lensing finished 8th out of the final 16 athletes in the Class A state High Jump in 2008. She earned 5th place for a medal in the Long Jump in 2007



The Jaguars boys relay teams did not advance to state. In the 4x200-meter Relay, the Jaguars placed fifth with a time of 1:36.03. In the 4x100-meter Relay, the Jaguars placed seventh with a time of 46.38 seconds.

Levi Anderson placed in the top eight in the 100-meter Dash, finishing seventh in the finals with a time of 11.83 seconds.

More information will be posted tomorrow.

This Jaguars sports playoff update brought to you by:

Tuesday area fastpitch/baseball/golf results

First off, good luck today to the Jaguars track and field teams, who will compete in the Section 5A meet at St.John's University today. Heidi Lensing of the girls squad will compete, with a handful of boys squad members will be there as well. It begins at 10:30am at Clemens Stadium in Collegeville.

Area baseball results:

Section 6AA
Paynesville 8, Melrose 5 (Paynesville is 17-4)
Staples-Motley 11, New London-Spicer 3
Rocori 3, Albany 2

Section 5A (the Prairie Conference rules the day at Joe Faber Field)
Browerville/Eagle Valley 6, Eden Valley-Watkins 3
The Broncos' Scott Lieser went all seven on the mound, giving up two earned runs and striking out four for the big win over the top seed.
Upsala/Swanville Area 7, Maple Lake 5

Section 3A
KMS 7, Lakeview 0
BOLD 5, Redwood Falls 4

Section 3AA
LQPV 10, YME 6

Section 6A
Morris Area 9, Brandon-Evansville 0
West Central 8, Hancock 5 (WCA was the #7 seed, Hancock the #2)

Area fastpitch results:

Section 5A Final Four round:
Maple Lake 11, Barnum 3 (winner's bracket final)
From the St.Cloud Times: Ashley Kempenich went all seven innings for the Irish, struck out 12 and allowed five hits to pick up the win as Maple Lake defeated Barnum in the Section 5A playoffs at Whitney Field. Brooke Decker was 3-for-3 and Chelsea Rachel was 3-for-4 with a home run. Barnum went on to beat Osakis 11-7 in the loser bracket final and will face Maple Lake again at 5 p.m. Thursday at Whitney. It will be the Section 5A championship series, where Maple Lake only needs one win to advance to state for the second straight year.

Section 3AA
NL-S 5, BOLD 4
Pipestone 11, NL-S 1 (NL-S is knocked out of the playoffs)

Section 3A
K-M-S 8, RRC/WWG 4
Murray County Central 7, K-M-S 2 (K-M-S is knocked out of the playoffs, finishing in 3rd place in the section)

Area girls golf results:

Section 6AA
(1) Minnewaska 305-298-603 (2) Staples-Motley 329-327-656 (3) St. Cloud Cathedral 358-373-713 (4) Albany 379-358-737

More will be posted throughout the day on Wednesday.

This Jaguars sports and area playoff results update brought to you by:

Passing along: Fifth Annual JJM Victory Run/Walk coming on June 20th

This is an e-mail I received from local B-B-E area photographer Kay Mithaugen-Halvorson:

Hello Everyone!

Mark your calendars. . .June 20th! The 5th annual JJM Victory Run/Walk.
You can see details and register online at the Prairie Woods web site. Click events and scroll to the bottom.

www.prairiewoodselc.org

Let me know if you have a t-shirt color idea for this year, we'll be ordering them soon.

Hope you can make it and bring all your friends!

Kay
greatervisions@willmarnet.com
320.254.3600

Elrosa Saints drop a dogfight at Roscoe 5-4 - Spring Hill hands Lake Henry 6-0 shutout loss, Memorial Day weekend honored

A shot of the Roscoe Rangers park from the highway.

The Elrosa Saints fell to 1-4 on the season with a very tough 5-4 loss at Roscoe on Sunday afternoon. Roscoe improved to 2-4 in the SCL.

The host Rangers scored on a two-RBI double to go with an unearned run to plate 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th for the win.

The Saints had gone up 4-2 with two earned runs in the top of the 9th inning.

Final at Lake Henry: The Spring Hill Chargers gave the Lakers their first loss of the year with a 6-0 shutout today. Lake Henry is now 5-1, with Spring Hill's SCL record going to 3-1.

Final at Richmond: The Richmond Royals nipped Meire Grove 5-4.

Final at Farming: The Farming Flames fell to Greenwald, 8-2 final score. The Cubs' Clint Hilsgen pitched 8 innings, with D.J. Winter closing in the 9th inning. After opening the season 0-3, the Cubs are now 2-3 on the year.

Those were the four Stearns County League games for Sunday.

Coming up for Elrosa: Friday, May 29th, the Saints host St.Martin under the lights at 8:15pm.

Shown is the tail end of the Star Spangled Banner played at the Lake Henry ballpark.

Have a splendid Memorial Day tomorrow!

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Ahh summer's almost here - Alexandria has "Awake the Lakes" weekend - Fireworks on Friday night

It was a gorgeous night on Friday, Saturday was just as good...Sunday and Monday should be great too...an awesome weekend to get summer started!

Saturday Section 3A fastpitch results:
Murray County Central 5, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 1
Wabasso 7, Morris Area 2
Wabasso 11, Murray County Central 8
Dawson-Boyd 4, MACCRAY 3
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 2, Dawson-Boyd 0
Red Rock Central/W-WG 5, Morris Area 4 (8 inn)
Red Rock Central/W-WG 3, Edgerton 0

Saturday Section 3AA fastpitch results:
BOLD 5, Jackson County Central 3
Benson/Hancock 3, St. James 1
Jackson County Central 6, Montevideo 0
New London-Spicer 6, Benson/Hancock 1
New Ulm 4, New London-Spicer 1
New Ulm 4, Pipestone Area 3
Pipestone Area 10, BOLD 0 (5 inn)

Stearns County League baseball this weekend on Saturday & Sunday, Elrosa loses on Saturday 2-1 at Greenwald

Saturday afternoon's results:
At Roscoe, the host Rangers were trailing 17-0 in the top of the eighth inning to the visiting Lake Henry Lakers. Lake Henry 18, Roscoe 0, Final

At Greenwald, the host Cubs lost 2-1 to the Elrosa Saints. Both teams are now 1-3 on the season.

Spring Hill 3, Meire Grove 0, Final - Ryan Klaphake pitched for the Grovers

St.Martin 4, Richmond 2, Final - Nathan Schlangen had a solo Home Run in the 7th inning

New Munich 3, Farming 2, Final

Result from Friday night at Ray Weber Field in St.Martin: St.Martin 6, New Munich 3, the Martins' Sam Rothstein hit a 3-run Home Run in the 7th inning for the winning margin - It was New Munich's first loss of the season.

No word on any other games.

On Sunday afternoon:
Elrosa @ Roscoe
Spring Hill @ Lake Henry
Meire Grove @ Richmond
Greenwald @ Farming

All games this weekend begin at 1:30pm.

Other news from the Stearns County League...
The New Munich at Meire Grove game, originally scheduled for April 26th, will be played at Meire Grove on Saturday, June 6th, at 1:30PM. The Greenwald at Spring Hill game, originally scheduled for April 26th, will be played at Spring Hill on Saturday, June 20th, at 1:30PM.

The All-Star Meeting will be on Sunday, May 31st, at 7:30PM at the Silver Spur Saloon in Saint Martin. Each team may nominate five players, with one of the five being nominated as a pitcher.

(Source, the SCL's official website: http://www.stearnscountybaseball.org/news.html

**Saturday playoff results around the area in prep fastpitch and baseball**
New Ulm 4, New London-Spicer 1 - Section 3AA fastpitch result

Late results from Friday:
In Section 5A baseball... Upsala/Swanville Area beat Holdingford 12-3. Royalton beat Onamia 14-0 in five innings.

Browerville/Eagle Valley (10-10) will face top-seeded Eden Valley-Watkins (16-3) in the semi-finals on Tuesday at 5pm at Joe Faber Field in St.Cloud. Maple Lake (15-5) plays USA (13-5) at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Faber in the other semi.

In Section 6AA fastpitch...The Paynesville Bulldogs ended an outstanding season with an 11-1, six-inning loss to Rocori. The Spartans, who were Central Lakes Conference champions, improve to 18-5 while the Bulldogs finish their season 17-6.

This Stearns County League amateur baseball update brought to you by:

Jaguars Baseball trails 6-4 in top of the 7th, loses a 4-2 lead at Eden Valley-Watkins - Final score: 6-4 Loss

The Jaguars baseball team is on the verge of a huge upset, providing they can score at least two runs in the top of the 7th inning and keep their season alive.

At about 6:30 the 7th inning began.

The game is a Sub-Section 5A-West quarterfinal game.

Update at 7:09: Final score 6-4 loss. The Jaguars finish their season 6-15 overall, but bring back most of the team and the bulk of the pitching battery for what will be a highly anticipated 2010 season.

Other sub-section baseball results: Osakis lost by the 10-run rule at 2-seeded Maple Lake; Browerville/Eagle Valley defeated visiting Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 4-1.

Maple Lake 10, Osakis 0 (5 innings) - the Irish scored 5 runs in the second inning to take a 6-0 lead.

This Jaguars sports playoff update brought to you by:

Whitney Bertram punches her ticket to Class A State Golf Tournament

Whitney shown in a file photo from the 2008 Class A state tournament in Becker.

Jaguars girls golfer Whitney Bertram is state-bound after a fourth-place finish at today's Section 5A meet at Little Crow Golf Course near New London. It will be the senior's second trip to the big show.

She missed third by one stroke, totaling a 95.

Individual qualifiers for the Class A state girls golf tournament:
1st- Kelsey Ross (Osakis) 88
2nd- Trisha Kienitz (Maccray) 91
3rd- Abby Knutson (Ortonville) 94
4th- Whitney Bertram (BBE) 95
5th- Ivy Schueller (Dawson-Boyd) 101
6th- Jackie Bowman (Osakis) 104

No one from the Jaguars boys golf team made the state tournament.

More will follow later today.

Ortonville boys and girls were team champs.

West Central Area's girls team took 3rd place.

This Jaguars sports playoff update brought to you by:

Jaguars Baseball wins eighth straight playoff opener, beats Kimball 8-4, Freshmen pitcher Brady Weller picks up complete-game win

The Jaguars improve to 6-14 overall, and will travel to Eden Valley on Friday for a 5pm game at Hawks Field. The host Eden Valley-Watkins Eagles (15-3) are the number one seed.

In the season opener on April 14 at Eden Valley, the Jaguars lost a nail biter 7-6. In the rematch on April 27 in Elrosa the Jaguars fell 11-1. Revenge will be on their minds as they attempt to pull off a huge and very possible upset.

Freshmen Brady Weller pitched a complete game tonight for his first career varsity playoff win. The report I heard said that he threw his first and only walk of the night in the seventh inning.

Sub-Section 5A-West baseball seedings and records, including respective conference record and final placing:
1- Eden Valley-Watkins (15-3, 12-2 CMC 1st)
2- Maple Lake (14-5, 11-3 CMC, 2nd)
3- Upsala/Swanville Area (12-5, 6-2 Prairie 1st tie)
4- Browerville/Eagle Valley (9-10, 6-2 Prairie 1st tie)
5- Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City (8-11, 8-8 WCCS 6th)
6- Holdingford (6-11, 6-8 CMC 5th)
7- Osakis (5-10, 3-5 Prairie 4th)
8- B-B-E (6-14, 4-10 CMC 6th)
9- Kimball Area (eliminated, finish 5-13, 3-11 CMC 7th)

More will follow Friday morning.

Note: More scores from tonight's action are posted further below.

Friday's golf schedule: Four members of the Jaguars golf program will "play for state" when they take part in the Section 5A meet at Little Crow Golf Club near New London. The meet begins at 9am. Corey Tonn, Matt Goodwin, Michael Rodgers, and Whitney Bertram are the Jaguars who advanced out of last Friday's Sub-Section 5A-North tournament.

This Jaguars sports playoff update brought to you by:
http://bayerbuilt.com/

A busy weekend coming up in Stearns County League action: Elrosa Saints travel to Greenwald (Sat) and Roscoe (Sun) for 1:30 games

In two weekend Stearns County League games for Memorial Day weekend, the Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team takes to the road on Saturday and Sunday.

More will follow on Friday morning, including a full schedule of all Stearns County League baseball games. It will be a fun, action-packed weekend for sure.

The extended forecast finally has plenty of heat over the next 10 days. It's been long over-due!

Paynesville Bulldogs Fastpitch knocks Minnewaska out of Section 6AA playoffs 3-1 in 13 innings!

The Lakers finish 20-3 in fastpitch while the Bulldogs improve to 17-5. After losing their season opener to Paynesville Area, Minnewaska reeled off 20 wins in a row, dispatching Sauk Centre 10-0 in the sub-section opener before falling to Rocori 13-3 in the semi-finals on Tuesday.

In tonight's game at Eden Valley, the score was 1-1 after 7 innings, a figure that held up until the 13th inning, when Paynesville plated 2 runs to pick up the win.

In baseball action in Section 6AA, the NL-S Wildcats knocked Minnewaska Area out of the playoffs in the single-elimination round, winning 12-11 in 7 innings. After the Lakers staked a 5-0 lead, NL-S sent 14 batters to the plate in the sixth inning to take a 9-5 lead.

The Lakers fought back to trail 12-11 in the top of the 7th inning, sitting on one out when the Wildcats' 4th pitcher earned a strikeout and a ground out to end the game.

NL-S improves to 11-10 overall, while Minnewaska finishes an 8-13 season.

The Osakis Silverstreaks fell to Maple Lake in the Section 5A-West championship game today at Minnewaska Area High School. Final score was 10-4.

Osakis and Maple Lake will join Barnum and Ogilvie for the Section 5A Final Four round next Tuesday in St.Cloud. In the Sub-Section 5A-East championship today, Barnum dispatched Ogilvie 8-0 to win that title for the second straight year. My records show that Barnum has one loss on the year in 2009. Ogilvie is 8-14 after today's loss.

Here's a link to an interesting story that highlights some fastpitch upsets that took place in the east half of Section 5A: http://www.northlandsportsonline.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1242829560&archive=&start_from=&ucat=5,271&

A preview of the story reads = "It's been upset city in the Section 5A girls softball tournament this season. In the East Subsection the only top seed to survive has been Barnum. The number two, three and four seeds all lost in the first round with only #1 seed Barnum coming away with a victory." - Courtesy of Kerry Rodd, writer for Northland Sports Online.

Section 6AA baseball playoff scores:
Paynesville 6, Benson 1
Melrose 4, Sauk Centre 3
Albany 7, Foley 5
Little Falls 8, Pierz 5

Section 5AA result in baseball playoffs:
Dassel-Cokato 10, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 3 (D-C was the 5th seed, HL-W-W hosted the game as the 4-seed)

Corey Tonn of the Jaguars boys golf team earns the Central Minnesota Conference championship

Because the West Central Tribune's website was crashed for most of the day on Monday, I was unable to grab individual results from the boys golf meet at Pierz on their archives...so the following wasn't included in the local newspapers:

Junior Corey Tonn earned the individual Central Minnesota Conference championship after the final tally was made from all six CMC meets. Both Tonn and Michael Rodgers earned all-conference in the CMC for the Jaguars boys golf team. The last time a local golfer won the conference title was in 2007, when Kari Rosengren won it on the girls side.

Tonn, Rodgers, Matt Goodwin, and Whitney Bertram will all represent B-B-E at the Section 5A meet on Friday, May 22, at Little Crow by New London.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Fastpitch season ends in a 4-1 loss to state-ranked Maple Lake, 11-9 final record - Track and Field sends six to Section 5A

Senior trackster Mac Derichs running one of his sprints at Paynesville. He is one of the four Jaguars boys squad members on the Sub-Section 5A-20 champion 4x100 Relay team.

The Jaguars Fastpitch team fell in a close battle with 6th-ranked Maple Lake, losing 4-1 at Minnewaska in the Sub-Section 5A-West semi-finals.

The Jaguars were held to two hits in the game.

The Irish improve to 18-3-1 overall, while the Jaguars end a great season with a final record of 11-9. They went 8-6 in the Central Minnesota Conference, good for 5th place alone in the final standings.

The Jaguars had advanced to the sub-section title games in 2007 and 2008. The season also marked the third time in the past four years that the Jaguars have ended with a winning record. They went 11-9 in 2006, 10-13 in 2007, and 14-7 in 2008.

In the other semi-final game, second-seeded Osakis defeated sixth-seeded A-C-GC 5-0. Both Maple Lake and Osakis advance to the Section 5A tournament, which is next week in St.Cloud. First they'll face off for the sub-section championship on Thursday at Minnewaska Area.

The Jaguars baseball team lost its final game of the regular season in a good battle against Royalton, held in Elrosa. The Jaguars (5-14) led 2-1 after four innings, and they totaled 9 hits in the loss.

Royalton takes a 14-5 record into Sub-Section 5A-East playoff action that begins this Friday. They finished 5-3 in the Prairie Conference, good for second place alone behind co-champions Upsala-Swanville Area and Browerville/Eagle Valley.

In an update from Sub-Section 5A-20 track and field... The Jaguars boys relay squad has qualified for Sections in the 4x200 and 4x100 Relays. Levi Anderson advances in the 100 Sprint, while Heidi Lensing moves on with High Jump and Long Jump championships.

The 4x100 Relay team of Jackson Illies, Joey Gruber, Mac Derichs, and Levi Anderson is sub-section champions, finishing with a time of 46.43 seconds. They finished second in the 4x200.

The meet was held at the Paynesville High School athletic fields.

Sub-Section 3A-North fastpitch scores:
MACCRAY 12, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 5
K-M-S 5, Wheaton 2
Chokio-Alberta/Herman-Norcross 8, RCW 4
Morris 8, Dawson-Boyd 1
Morris 8, MACCRAY 4
K-M-S 3, CA/HN 1
RCW 6, Wheaton 1

Sub-Section 6AA-West
St. Cloud Cathedral 7, Paynesville 0
Rocori 13, Minnewaska 3 (the Lakers' winning streak ends at 21)

Sub-Section 3AA-North
NL-S 10, LQPV 4
Benson/Hancock 7, Yellow Medicine East 4
Montevideo 12, Redwood Valley 9
New London-Spicer 7, Benson/Hancock 1 (NL-S improves to 15-4)
BOLD 11, Montevideo 1
YME 13, LQPV 3

Area baseball results:
Morris 9, Paynesville 8 (P'ville finishes 13-3 in the West Central South, earning the championship)
Albany 12, Melrose 2 (Albany is 16-4 overall, 14-2 in the WCCN)
Foley 10, New London-Spicer 8
Milaca 4, Sauk Centre 2 (ouch, Milaca was 2-17 going into the game)
St.Cloud Tech 4, Willmar 3
BOLD 11, Montevideo 6
Minnewaska 14, YME 3
MACCRAY 7, Benson 1
McLeod West 8, A-C-GC 0 (Falcons are 8-12)

Sub-Section 5AA pigtail game:
Rockford 14, Becker 11 (Rockford takes a 4-17 record against #1-seeded Big Lake in the quarterfinals)

This Jaguars sports playoff update brought to you by:

Had to throw this one in there... just for fun on my end

A billboard on the corner of Snelling Ave. and I-94 in St.Paul.

Sub-Section 5A-West fastpitch quarterfinal results - Jaguars will face Maple Lake tomorrow

Though there wasn't much drama going into it, the Maple Lake Irish won their quarterfinal game today in a home matchup with the 8th-seeded Browerville Tigers. Final score was 13-0.

In the other two quarterfinals tonight: Osakis 12, Kimball Area 2 in five innings... A-C-GC pulled off a six-vs-three upset with a 6-2 win at Holdingford, as the Falcons improved to 11-8.

Tomorrow Osakis will face A-C-GC in one semi-final game, with the Jaguars taking on state-ranked and top-seeded Maple Lake in the other semi. Both games will take place at 5pm at the Minnewaska Area high school fastpitch complex.

Other area fastpitch playoff results:
Becker 11, Pierz 0 - Sub-Section 6AA, Pioneers finish 3-17 overall
Rocori 8, Albany 2 - Sub-Section 6AA, Huskies finish 8-8 after a 7-2 start
St.Cloud Cathedral 10, Melrose 0- SS 6AA
Paynesville Area 6, LP-GE 1 - SS 6AA, Bulldogs are 16-4

Area baseball results:
Willmar 3, NL-S 2
Orono 9, Litchfield 2
A-C-GC 8, Montevideo 4
Morris Area 5, Benson 1
Hancock 15, C-G-B 5
MACCRAY 10, K-M-S 3

Stearns County League results from the weekend

On Friday night, the St.Martin Martins defeated neighboring rival Farming 3-2 on a cold, blustery night under the lights at Ray Weber Field. At the same time, Elrosa was getting hammered by Lake Henry 13-1 at Saints Field.

Sunday afternoon results:
*Meire Grove 7, Roscoe 4
*New Munich 10, Greenwald 4

No score from Lake Henry yet.

Spring Hill went 1-2 over the weekend at a tough Freeport Black Sox tournament.

Stearns County League games on Sunday around the area - Also, Jaguars boys golf results from sub-section have been added

Lake Henry, Greenwald, and Meire Grove all host Stearns County League games today at 1:30.

Richmond visits Lake Henry, Roscoe is at Meire Grove, and New Munich is at Greenwald.

On Friday night, Farming was at St.Martin and Lake Henry was at Elrosa.

In Sub-Section 5A-West fastpitch...Three of the four quarterfinal games were postponed to Monday at 5pm. Only the Jaguars vs. Swanville game took place, a win for the Jaguars by an 11-4 margin. On Monday, Kimball visits Osakis, Browerville is at Maple Lake, and Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City travels to Holdingford.

Three Jaguars on the boys golf team qualified for the Section 5A tournament to be held next Friday, May 22, at Little Crow Golf Club in Spicer. Corey Tonn, Michael Rodgers, and Matt Goodwin all advanced from the Sub-Section 5A-North tournament on Friday. More will be published in next week's local newspapers.

This area sports update brought to you by:

Elrosa Saints trail 12-1 after 6 innings, final score 13-1 loss to Lake Henry

It was a cold, blustery night at Elrosa on Friday night...


The Saints dug a deep hole in the third inning, giving up 10 runs to the visiting Lakers.

Elrosa takes to the road next weekend with 1:30pm games on both Saturday at Greenwald and Sunday at Roscoe.

Jaguars Fastpitch pounces on visiting Swanville Bulldogs, Final Score: 11-4 win for the Jaguars - Bertram advances to Section 5A meet in girls golf

The Jaguars Fastpitch team is on their way to a big playoff-opening win over 5th-seeded Swanville in the Sub-Section 5A-West quarterfinals.

They led 10-1 in the fourth inning and went on to post an 11-4 win against the 5th-seeded Bulldogs. The also defeated a 5th-seeded Swanville squad in the 2006 playoff opener, that one by a score of 8-1.

Swanville finishes the season with a record of 10-6. The Jaguars improve to 11-8 going into the semi-final round, where they will undoubtedly face #1-seeded and state-ranked Maple Lake. The Sub-Section 5A-West semi-final game is next Tuesday, May 19, at 5:00pm at the Minnewaska Area High School fastpitch complex.

Maple Lake was to host 8th-seeded Browerville (6-10) in another sub-section quarterfinal game tonight, but rain postponed the game until Monday at 5pm in Maple Lake.

Tonight marks the 8th straight time the fastpitch has won their playoff opener, a streak going back to May 2002.

Jaguars girls golf senior Whitney Bertram advanced to the Section 5A tournament next weekend by scoring a 96 at the Sub-Section 5A-North tournament on Friday in Benson. She advanced as the second individual qualifier, as the top two teams and the top three individuals move on to the section tournament next Friday at the Little Crow Country Club in Spicer.

West Central Area won the girls golf title in Sub-Section 5A-North, with Ortonville finishing as runner-up. On the boys side of Sub-Section 5A-North, Ortonville won the team title, with Chokio-Alberta/Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley finishing in second place.

No results on the Jaguars boys team were available as of Saturday morning from the playoff tournament.

The Jaguars baseball team lost a close game at Osakis (5-9 overall) tonight by an 11-10 margin in extra innings. The hosts won the game on a two-out double in the bottom of the 9th inning. The Jaguars (5-13 overall) took a 10-8 lead in the seventh inning on two singles and three Silverstreaks' errors. Freshmen Brady Weller took the loss on the mound, closing in the final three innings.

Osakis was blanked the night before by Browerville/Eagle Valley (7-7 overall) in a 13-0 loss, held to one hit by senior Broncos ace pitcher Scott Lieser. B/EV clinched a share of the Prairie Conference title with the win. Upsala/Swanville Area was the other co-champion, both teams finishing 6-2 in the loop.

Fastpitch playoff scores:
*Sub-Section 5AA-20:
Dassel-Cokato 5, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 3
Delano 10, Litchfield 0
Watertown-Mayer 3, Rockford 2

*Sub-Section 6AA-West
Minnewaska Area 10, Sauk Centre 0, 5 inn (Lakers win 20th straight game, they are the #2 seed and 20-1 overall)

Friday area baseball results:
Sauk Centre 8, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 3

Late Thursday result in the CMC for baseball:
Maple Lake 13, Eden Valley-Watkins 3
Eden Valley-Watkins 10, Maple Lake 1 (EV-W clinched the CMC title outright with the win, finishing 12-2 in the loop, Maple Lake could have swiped the title away with a win in the 2nd game of the double-header; they finish 11-3 in the CMC)

Late result from Thursday at Pierz, boys golf...final CMC meet of the season, the Jaguars boys golf team finished in heartbreaking fashion, 6 strokes behind 2009 CMC Champion Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted. They came back in a furious rally at the final CMC meet, winning first place and having senior Michael Rodgers taking medalist honors (tied with Rockford's Nathan Bacon)... However, final results after six meets are as follows:

(1) Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 1,076 (2) B-B-E 1,082 (3) Pierz 1,088 (4) Rockford 1,109 (5) Kimball 1,119 (6) Maple Lake 1,166.

Junior Corey Tonn earned the individual Central Minnesota Conference championship. Both Tonn and Michael Rodgers earned all-conference in the CMC for the Jaguars boys golf team this season. The last time a local golfer won the conference title was in 2007, when Kari Rosengren won it on the girls side.

More info will be in next week's local newspapers.

On Saturday morning, Jaguars baseball Coach Montbriand will be on Smooth Magic 107's Coaches Roundup that begins at 7:15am on 107.1FM. You can also tune in online at http://smoothmagic107.com/

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Remember Friday night... Elrosa Saints host Lake Henry in a Stearns County League interdivision matchup

First pitch is set for 8:15pm on Friday night, May 15, when Elrosa (1-1) hosts undefeated Lake Henry (2-0).

As this is being written, it's 42 degrees outside my office! The forecast for Friday is rain/showers during the day, then breaking by 6pm and sunshine and 60 degrees in the evening. Sounds about perfect for some amateur baseball!

Also on Friday night in the Stearns County League...St.Martin hosts Farming, a town sitting a whole 5 miles to the east. That's our local version of a "border battle," something that makes Stearns County League baseball so much fun to follow and promote.

On Sunday in the Stearns County League...Lake Henry hosts Richmond, Meire Grove hosts Roscoe, and Greenwald hosts New Munich. Those games are at 1:30.

Thursday night Sub-Section 5A-West fastpitch "pigtail" result:
*Kimball Area 14, Eden Valley-Watkins 9 (EV-W is done, Kimball advances to face #2-seeded Osakis at 5:00 on Friday in the quarterfinals.
*Browerville 8, Upsala 6 (B'ville will face Maple Lake on Friday)

Hot off the press: Jaguars Baseball seeded #8 in Sub-Section 5A-West

The Jaguars baseball team was seeded #8 in Wednesday night's playoff ranking meeting. They will host 9th-seeded Kimball Area on Thursday, May 21 at 5:00pm at Saints Field in Elrosa.

If they win, they would travel to top-seeded Eden Valley-Watkins the next day for a 5:00 game against the Eagles.

I was very surprised to hear the Jaguars were not the #7 seed.

Complete Sub-Section 5A-West baseball seedings:
1- Eden Valley-Watkins
2- Maple Lake
3- Upsala/Swanville Area
4- Browerville/Eagle Valley
5- Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
6- Holdingford
7- Osakis
8- B-B-E
9- Kimball Area

Records and further info on those teams will be posted over the next couple days/weekend.

The Jaguars baseball team plays at Osakis at 4:30 on Friday.

In the latest Coaches Association rankings for baseball, the following area teams found themselves on the list. In Class AA, Paynesville Area (#19), BOLD (#14), Rocori (#20), with Pierz receiving votes. In Class A, Royalton was #6 on May 5th but certainly won't be there when the next votes take place. Maccray was #13 and probably moved up lately, with Eden Valley-Watkins also receiving votes and undoubtedly moving up since the May 5th vote took place.

In other Jaguars sports...playoffs begin for golf and fastpitch. On Friday the Jaguars boys and girls golf teams compete in the Sub-Section 5A-North tournament at the Benson Golf Club. At 5:00 on Friday, the Jaguars fastpitch hosts Swanville (10-5) in the Sub-Section 5A-West quarterfinals.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Numerous CMC Championships earned by the Jaguars Track and Field teams on Tuesday

The Jaguars track and field teams traveled to Holdingford on Tuesday for the 2009 Central Minnesota Conference championships.

The pole vault wasn't held due to heavy wind; it will be made up on Friday.

The girls squad placed sixth, the boys squad placed fifth.

More will be posted on Thursday.

Late results from Tuesday in baseball:
Osakis 2, Royalton 1

The Jaguars Fastpitch team, 10-8 overall, enters post-season action in Sub-Section 5A-West this Friday. The sub-section quarterfinal game is at home at 5:00 game against Swanville (10-5) in the Sub-Section 5A-West quarterfinals. Swanville was defeated 11-1 to Osakis on Monday and by Royalton 7-6 on Tuesday, both Prairie Conference games. Swanville finishes the Prairie Conference schedule at 8-4.

One more time, the playoff seedings in Sub-Section 5A-West fastpitch:
1. Maple Lake
2. Osakis
3. Holdingford
4. B-B-E
5. Swanville
6. Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
7. Kimball
8. Browerville
9. Upsala
10. Eden Valley-Watkins

The Jaguars baseball team (5-12 overall) travels to Osakis on Friday for a 4:30 non-conference game. They wrap up the regular season next Tuesday in Elrosa against Royalton. The Jaguars have a shot at winning both games and taking a respectable record into sub-section playoffs, which start on May 22.

Osakis is 4-8 overall and 3-3 in the Prairie Conference.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Fastpitch splits double-header vs. Rockford - Jaguars Baseball picks up a nice sweep at Rockford to snap 5-game losing slide

The Jaguars Fastpitch team will take a 10-8 overall record into Sub-Section 5A-West. They begin playoffs on Friday at home in a 5:00 game against Swanville (10-5) in the Sub-Section 5A-West quarterfinals. Swanville was defeated 11-1 to Osakis on Monday and by Royalton 7-6 on Tuesday, both Prairie Conference games. Swanville finishes the Prairie Conference schedule at 8-4.

Game one today resulted in an 17-4 win for the Jaguars in 5 innings, due to 18 hits for the Jaguars in four innings of batting. Game two went to the Rockets, however, a 5-4 result in 8 innings.

The Jaguars Baseball team picked up two nice CMC wins at Rockford (2-15 overall) in a double-header, 7-3 and 9-6. Junior Darren Wander went the distance on the mound in game one, scattering six hits while earning four strikeouts. Freshmen Brady Weller earned the win in three innings of relief pitching in game two, giving up only one hit.

The Jaguars improve to 5-12 overall while finishing the CMC schedule 4-10. Sometime on Wednesday afternoon I'll update this website with new CMC baseball standings.

No word on the CMC Track and Field championships that took place today at Holdingford.

**Update on Wednesday morning...From Greenwald Cubs' manager Rich Primus:
St. Martin ended up beating Greenwald by the score of 4 to 1 on a cool and chilly Saturday night. St. Martin had 10 to Greenwald's 8. St. Martin had 3 players getting three hits. They were Kyle Burg, Josh Harrison and Nathan Beier. Kenny Arceneau hit a solo home run in the second inning. For Greenwald Cody Imdieke and Grant Schoenberg each had two hits. Scott Schlagen was the winning pitcher with Ryan Moscho picking up the save going the last three innings. For Greenwald Clint Hilsgen took the lose going six innings and Nick Rademacher going the final two innings.

The Jaguars fastpitch finishes the Central Minnesota Conference schedule with a record of 8-6, the second best-ever CMC record in fastpitch for B-B-E. It also puts them in 5th place in the 8-team league, with Rockford and Holdingford finishing tied for 3rd at 9-5, HL-W-W holding 2nd alone at 10-4.

This is the 11th season they've been in the league since joining in 1999. In the 2000 season they went 6-8-1, in 2006 they went 7-7, and last year they went 10-4 in the CMC.

Regular-season records since 2006 are: 10-8, 7-11, 11-5, now 10-8. Cumulative that amounts to 38-32, a winning record as the smallest school in the CMC. Their 10-8 regular season record this year is quite impressive considering they have only 3 seniors on the roster, two of whom are returning starters.

This decade since 2000, the Jaguars have finished the regular season with an above-.500 record only three times, in 2006, 2008, and now 2009. In 2000, they were 10-10-1 going into playoffs.

Three out of the past four seasons, the Jaguars have ended the regular season with a winning record. Their six-game winning streak during the middle of this season is the longest such streak in fastpitch since the inaugural Jaguars team in 1989 went undefeated (11-0) in the regular season - that team was coached by Jerry Lindstrom by the way. One interesting note is that one of Maggie Gruber's aunts, the former Barb Gruber, was a starter on that 1989 team.

The Jaguars Fastpitch will have a chance beginning this Friday to earn their third straight sub-section championship game appearance in B-B-E history dating back to 1989, when they finished as District 20 runners-up. The Jaguars have been runners-up in the sub-section 8 times, champions once (2008).

Area baseball results:
Pierz 8, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 6
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 7, Pierz 6 (HL-W-W erases any chance of Pierz repeating as CMC champs with this win over the Pioneers)
Albany 11, Holdingford 0

CMC fastpitch results:
Maple Lake 25, Eden Valley-Watkins 10
Maple Lake 22, Eden Valley-Watkins 0
Holdingford 14, Kimball Area 4
Kimball Area 18, Holdingford 10
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 10, Pierz 0 (6 inn)
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 7, Pierz 2

Area fastpitch results:
Royalton 7, Swanville 6
Osakis 13, Upsala 2
Browerville 11, Eagle Valley 8
St.Cloud Cathedral 4, New London-Spicer 3
NL-S 4, St.Cloud Cathedral 3

Final CMC fastpitch standings, updated late Tuesday night:
1st- Maple Lake (13-1)
2nd- HL-W-W (10-4)
3rd- Rockford (9-5)
3rd- Holdingford (9-5) 10-5 overall
5th- B-B-E (8-6)
6th- Kimball (5-9) 7-12 overall
7th- EV-W (1-13)
8th- Pierz (1-13)

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Fastpitch falls to K-M-S 8-4, host Rockford tomorrow - Jaguars boys golf place 5th at Kimball

The Jaguars Fastpitch team fell in a non-conference game at Murdock to the Camden Conference Champion K-M-S Fighting Saints. Six K-M-S runs in the bottom of the fourth erased a 2-0 Jaguars' lead after three scoreless innings opened the game.

The final score was 8-4.

The fastpitch team's record is 9-7 overall and 7-5 in the CMC, good for fifth place alone. A three-way tie exists for second place right now between HL-W-W, Rockford, and Holdingford, all with 4 CMC losses.

The Jaguars boys golf team had a rough outing at Kimball on Monday, finishing 5th as a team to put their hopes of a CMC title in jeopardy. Corey Tonn was medalist, however, to highlight the Jaguars' performance by shooting a 40. They close out the CMC season with the sixth league meet on Thursday at Pierz.

On Tuesday the Jaguars Fastpitch hosts Rockford (9-9, 8-4 CMC) in a double-header to wrap up the regular season. They have a chance to finish the CMC at 9-5, earning sole possession of second or third place in the league with two wins on Tuesday. Rockford just defeated CMC second-place HL-W-W 3-1 in Howard Lake tonight. The Lakers entered the game in second place at 8-3 in the CMC, the Rockets were 7-4. Both teams are now tied for second going into tomorrow's regular season finales.

The Jaguars Fastpitch opens playoffs on Friday at home in a 5:00 game against Swanville (10-4) in the Sub-Section 5A-West quarterfinals. Swanville was defeated 11-1 to Osakis today in a Prairie Conference game.

I had a mistake in my 5A-West seedings, putting Browerville as #7 when it should've been Kimball Area in that spot. Browerville is the #8 seed.

Central Minnesota Conference fastpitch standings/records:
Maple Lake (11-1)
HL-W-W (8-4)
Rockford (8-4)
Holdingford (7-4) *they faced EV-W today and probably won
B-B-E (7-5)
Kimball (4-8)
EV-W (1-11)
Pierz (1-11)

Area baseball results:
Maple Lake 10, Kimball Area 9 (a loss would've been costly for the Irish, who are zeroing in on a #2 sub-section playoff seed)
Rocori 7, Pierz 4
Eden Valley-Watkins 14, Holdingford 4
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 3, Rockford 2
Albany 6, NL-S 5
Hancock 7, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 0
Hancock 13, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 5 (Hancock is 10-3)

Area fastpitch results:
Rockford 3, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 1
Holdingford 14, Eden Valley-Watkins 12
Maple Lake 6, Kimball Area 1
Osakis 11, Swanville 1
Eagle Valley 10, Upsala 9
Bertha-Hewitt 14, Browerville 4
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 7, Montevideo 1
New London-Spicer 9, Melrose 0

The Jaguars baseball team (2-10 CMC, 3-12) travels to Rockford on Tuesday for a CMC double-header against the Rockets. Two wins by the Jaguars would prove helpful for Wednesday night's Sub-Section 5A-South seeding meeting. Rockford is 2-13 overall.

I predict the Jaguars will come in at a 7-seed, with a first-round match-up against Maple Lake in the sub-section quarterfinals. The upside to that is avoiding a first-round play-in round, due to their convincing sweep over Kimball on April 30.

Here's my predictions on baseball seeding:
1- Eden Valley-Watkins
2- Maple Lake
3- Upsala/Swanville Area
4- Browerville/Eagle Valley
5- Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
6- Holdingford
7- B-B-E
8- Kimball Area
9- Osakis

In that scenario, Osakis and Kimball would play in a pigtail game to decide who gets to face #1-seed Eden Valley-Watkins.

I don't see any way it shakes out that the Jaguars can rise above #7. Two close losses to Holdingford pin them under the Huskers. A-C-GC's strength-of-schedule factor (facing strong teams from Paynesville/Morris/BOLD twice) gives them a slight nod over Holdingford. The top four seeds in my list all have winning records against Section 5A opponents.

It will be a very entertaining sub-section race. The Jaguars definitely have a chance against Maple Lake or USA, the two teams who I feel are worthy of a #2-seed.

The Jaguars track and field teams travel to Holdingford on Tuesday for the Central Minnesota Conference meet. It begins at 3pm.

Info from the Lake Henry amateur baseball win against Farming, a 5-3 result:
Lakers veteran pitcher Roger Wuertz picked up the win in 6 innings of work, giving up 5 hits and earning 6 strikeouts. Leading hitters for Lake Henry were: Jon Lieser 2-for-4 including a double, 2 runs; Shane Kampsen 2-for-4, 2 stolen bases, Mike Stalboerger 2-for-5, 2 RBI.

Info from the New Munich win over Spring Hill, a 7-0 result:
Jim Thull pitched seven innings to pick up the win for the Silverstreaks, who scored 5 runs on 2 Charger errors in the 4th inning. Chad Funk went 2-for-3 with a double and 2 RBI, with Joe Stangler going 2-for-4 with 2 RBI.

Done with this blog until Tuesday night - I've got a newspaper to build (yeh, gotta love the daily grind)

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Ouch, Jaguars baseball falls 8-7 to a strong NL-S Wildcats team at Green Lake Diamonds on Saturday night

The Jaguars baseball team is still searching for its fourth win of the season as they head into this week's action.

Saturday's game vs. NL-S was a tense thriller, neck-and-neck through all seven innings.

Jaguars sports on Monday - CMC boys golf meet at Kimball, Fastpitch @ K-M-S in Murdock

It will be a busy week of sports for the Jaguars varsity programs, as the regular seasons wind down and playoffs loom on the horizon.

The Jaguars fastpitch non-conference game at K-M-S on Monday marks the first time ever the two schools will meet in fastpitch in the regular season. The game begins at 4:30 at the Murdock diamonds. K-M-S, who won the 2009 Camden Conference title, is almost a sure bet for the #1 seed in Sub-Section 3A-North. Last I checked (Sunday morning), the Fighting Saints had not been seeded yet.

The Jaguars boys golf team, who is chasing Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted in the CMC race by a slim 20-stroke margin after four meets, travels to Kimball for another league meet on Monday at 4:15.

...over the weekend, area results:
Fastpitch: Paynesville swept Benson in a West Central South Conference double-header by scores of 3-1 and 7-4. The Bulldogs are 11-3 in the WCCS and 14-3 overall.

Stearns County League results: Elrosa Saints 14, Meire Grove 4 - New Munich 7, Spring Hill 0

The video clip is Weston Wander's single in the bottom of the 6th.


The Elrosa Saints entertained the Meire Grove Grovers at Saints Field on Mother's Day in a Stearns County League North game.

The hosts trailed 2-0 after the top of the first inning, then went up 3-2 after one frame was in the book. A 6-2 lead was on the scoreboard after two innings.

The Saints led 6-2 in the second inning before Steve Mueller earned the first hit for Elrosa with a single to left field.

The Grovers ended the second inning with a 5-5-3 double play.

It's 2:44 with the third inning finally starting.

At 4:40 the game was completed in Elrosa...Final score: Elrosa 14, Meire Grove 4.

Update at 4:30...The New Munich Silverstreaks blanked the host Spring Hill Chargers by a 7-0 score.

**Update at 9:06pm...Jim Thull started on the mound for New Munich and went seven innings, relieved by Silverstreaks closer Adam Stangler. Shawn Schoenberg started for Spring Hill, going six innings. Aaron Welle was the closer for the Chargers, finishing out the final three frames.

Other results from the area in amateur baseball on Sunday:
Richmond 5, Roscoe 1
Lake Henry 5, Farming 3
Paynesville 2, Atwater 1
New London-Spicer 7, Starbuck 6
Regal 2, Norway Lake-Sunburg 0

On Saturday night at Ray Weber Field in St.Martin, the host Martins defeated Greenwald 4-1 under the lights in an 8:15 game. It was the Martins' first win of the season after dropping games to Roscoe and Lake Henry. They were the lone Stearns County League team to make "state" in 2008.

This Elrosa Saints amateur baseball update brought to you by:

Sizing up: Fastpitch and Baseball sub-section standings

In this post I'll be collecting records for teams in the Jaguars fastpitch and baseball sub-sections (5A-West or 5A-South)...

Baseball teams in Sub-Section 5A-South:
The first one I found was Browerville/Eagle Valley in baseball, they were 3-5 overall and 3-1 in the Prairie Conference heading into the month of May. They ended the month of April with a narrow 6-4 loss to Upsala/Swanville Area in a game in which the Broncos' pitchers gave up 14 walks while holding the Patriots to no hits. Currently they are 5-7 overall and 5-2 in the Prairie Conference.

*Upsala/Swanville is 5-2 in the Prairie Conference and 9-5 overall, putting them on top of the Prairie by a half-game over Royalton. They picked up a big win over Royalton by a 5-1 score this past week on Thursday. Royalton entered that game as the 6th-ranked team in Class A.

*Royalton is 10-4 overall and 4-2 in the Prairie Conference. They are still on track for a top-four playoff seed. The Royals were Section 5A champs in 2007, finishing 2nd at the Class A state tournament. Six of this year's seniors on the Royals baseball team played key roles on that 2007 squad as sophomores.

*Osakis is 2-4 in the Prairie Conference and 3-8 overall. They fell to Upsala/Swanville Area last Tuesday (May 5) by a 14-7 score.

*Eden Valley-Watkins is 13-2 overall and is almost a lock for the #1 seed.

*Kimball Area is 4-9 overall and 2-7 in the CMC. Luckily the Jaguars swept them back on April 30 and will be seeded ahead of the Cubs, regardless of how each team finishes the regular season.

Fastpitch teams in Sub-Section 5A-West:
Update over the weekend...Maple Lake went 1-1-1 in a tournament at Robbinsdale Cooper high school on Saturday.
*Browerville is 4-7 overall and 3-6 in the Prairie Conference.
*Osakis is 14-2 overall and 10-0 in the Prairie Conference.
*Upsala is 3-6 in the Prairie Conference and 4-10 overall.
*Swanville (the Jaguars' first-round playoff opponent on May 15) is 10-3 overall and 8-2 in the Prairie Conference. They defeated Pierz 7-4 on May 1 in Swanville, thanks to a five-run fourth inning.
*Maple Lake (the #1-seed) is 13-3-1 overall and 10-1 in the CMC.
*A-C-GC is 7-8 overall and 6-7 in the West Central South Conference.
*Holdingford (the #3-seed) is 8-4 overall and 7-4 in the CMC.

This is terrible news - AT&T to buy territories, including west central Minnesota, from Verizon for $2.35B

By: Peter Svensson, AP Technology Writer, The Associated Press

This sale includes the current Verizon customer franchise in west central Minnesota.

Verizon Wireless was forced to sell the service areas, which are spread over 18 states, to sat-isfy regulatory conditions of its purchase of Alltel Corp. The areas are mainly Alltel territories that overlap with Verizon’s own coverage, but also some Verizon territories and areas covered by Rural Cellular, another carrier Verizon bought last year.

Dallas-based AT&T, the country’s largest telecommunications company, was the expected winner of the auction for the assets.

AT&T is getting spectrum licenses, cell towers and 1.5 million subscribers in the deal. Since AT&T phones aren’t compatible with Alltel or Verizon phones, these subscribers will need new phones to use AT&T’s network.

AT&T said the deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. After that, it will take less than a year to convert the areas to its own network technology, which will require about $400 million in investment.

The states with areas included in the deal are Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

AT&T also said it had agreed to sell five Centennial Communications Corp. service areas in Louisiana and Mississippi to Verizon Wireless for $240 million. AT&T announced plans to ac-quire Centennial in November 2008, and the deal is awaiting regulatory approval. AT&T said it expects that the sale of Centennial service areas that overlap with its own will boost the chance of approval.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Voda-fone Group PLC of Britain.

Jaguars baseball drops two in home double-header vs. Maple Lake by 8-1 and 11-1 scores; Up next: NL-S at Spicer on Saturday night

The Jaguars baseball team dropped two games in a home double-header at Elrosa to the Maple Lake Irish today. Scores were 8-1 and 11-1. The baseball team travels to Spicer on Saturday night for a JV/Varsity double-header. The JV plays at 5:00, with the Varsity to follow. Minneota Gophers public address announcer Dick Jonckowski will entertain the crowd at Green Lake Diamonds. Fan events will take place between innings.

Maple Lake improves to 11-4 overall and 9-2 in the CMC with the sweep. They trail first-place Eden Valley-Watkins by one game in the standings.

The Jaguars boys golf team narrowly finished second to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted in the fourth Central Minnesota Conference meet of the season in a home meet held at Prairie View Community Golf Course today. Team results were: (1) Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 165 (2) B-B-E 168 (3) Rockford 172 (4) Pierz 175 (5) Kimball/Eden Valley-Watkins 183 (6) Maple Lake 188.

I just looked at some cumulative season stats for the Jagaurs Fastpitch team, and it is great to note that they have 6 players all hitting over .300 on the season.

In another score, Minnewaska Area (7-8 overall) lost a home game in the West Central South Conference to the visiting Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Falcons. The score of that game was 9-7.

Area baseball scores:
Albany 9, Foley 5
St.Cloud Cathedral 7, Melrose Area 5
Montevideo 7, YME 6
K-M-S 3, Benson 2
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 13, Milaca 3 (LP-GE snaps a 6-game losing streak)
Eden Valley-Watkins 10, Lester Prairie 1 (EV-W is 13-2 overall)

Area fastpitch scores:
Minnewaska Area 4, A-C-GC 1 (Minnewaska is 16-1 overall!)
YME 5, Montevideo 4
BOLD 6, Morris Area 3
Foley 4, Albany 2
St.Cloud Cathedral 11, Melrose Area 1
Marshall 14, RCW 0
MACCRAY 8, Lakeview 1 (Maccray is 10-5 after starting 1-4)

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

A busy weekend coming up - on Friday Jaguars baseball hosts, Jaguars boys golf hosts at Prairie View, the Elrosa Saints host Saturday night and Sunday

The Jaguars baseball team hosts Maple Lake today at 4:00 in a CMC double-header at Saints Field in Elrosa. The Jaguars boys golf team hosts a CMC meet at the Prairie View Community Golf Course at 1:00.

Saturday night the action is as follows: Jaguars baseball vs. NL-S at Spicer, 5:00 JV game, 7:00 Varsity game under the lights at Green Lake Diamonds. The Elrosa Saints hosts the Sauk Centre Titans at 6:00pm.

On Sunday, the Saints host Meire Grove in a Stearns County League North clash.

Below I'm posting a couple updates that I received from managers from two of the SCL-North teams.

Greenwald's Rich Primus: Meier Grove defeated Greenwald by a score of 5 to 2. "This was anybody's game with the hits being even at 9 a piece. Leading Meier Grove was Shaun Meyer, Eric Marthalar and Jim Sieben with two hits a piece. Greenwald countered with 3 hits from Cody Imdieke, our lead-off hitter, and Dave Lensing with two hits. Matt Imdieke picked up the win going 6 innings and Ryan Klaphake recorded the save. Ryan did not give up a hit. Nick Rademacher took the loss going 7 innings, striking out four and only giving up one earned run. Nick struck out the side in the third inning. This was the first game of the season for us but I felt that we should of won this one. A couple of plays here and there and we could off had several more runs. We need to give our pitchers more run support. I feel we will be in the thick of the race by the end of the season though as our young team gets more confidence in themselves."

Meire Grove's Doug Meyer: Further info from the Grovers vs. Cubs game...
1. Top hitters – Kyle Marthaler, Shawn Meyer, and Jimmy Sieben each had two hits.
2. Pitching stats – Matt Imdieke picked up the win, going six innings, giving up two runs with three strikeouts. Ryan Klaphake picked up the save, going three innings, allowing no runs with one strikeout.
3. Meire Grove scored two runs in the top of the 4th on a two run single by Matt Imdieke to take a 2-0 lead. Greenwald tied it with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Meire Grove broke the tie in the top of the 7th with two runs on two out, RBI singles by Greg Nathe and Kyle Marthaler. Meire Grove added an insurance run in the top of the 8th. Two other key stats include three stolen bases by Shawn Meyer, and Meire Grove pitchers not walking any Greenwald batters.

Jaguars Fastpitch six-game winning streaks ends in Maple Lake, now 9-6 overall going into the final week of regular season play

The Jaguars fastpitch suffered two losses in a CMC double-header at Maple Lake on Thursday. Scores were 10-4 and 15-4. They are 9-6 overall and 7-5 in the CMC. (The St.Cloud Times is wrong, reporting them as 9-5 in the CMC)

Maple Lake was ranked #7 in the Coaches Association poll released on May 4th, breaking into the top-10 after being previously un-ranked.

The fastpitch team travels to Murdock on Monday (May 11) to face the K-M-S Fighting Saints (13-2 overall) in a non-conference game. The next day they host Rockford in a CMC double-header at 4:00. That action wraps up the regular season for the team. (Sub-Section 5A-West playoff information is posted below.)

The Jaguars girls golf team placed fifth at a tough Litchfield Invite. As a team the Jaguars totaled 198, with the top four scorecard reading: Amy Knutson 44, Whitney Bertram 45, Jordan Grundeman 49, Marissa Quade 60.

The track and field squads were at Melrose today. Posted above is a photo of Heidi Lensing flying high in the Long Jump for a personal best result of 17 feet, 3 1/2 inches.

The Jaguars boys golf team hosts a Central Minnesota Conference on Friday at Prairie View Community Golf Course. The meet begins at 1:00pm.

The Jaguars baseball team hosts Maple Lake at 4:00 on Friday. That will be held in Elrosa at Saints Field. They also travel to Spicer's Green Lake Diamonds for a 5:00 JV-7:00 Varsity double header against NL-S.

Baseball scores in the CMC:
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 8, Holdingford 5
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 1, Holdingford 0
Pierz 12, Kimball Area 2

Fastpitch scores in the CMC:
Kimball Area 7, Pierz 0
Kimball Area 11, Pierz 6

Scores from teams in Section 5A:
Upsala/Swanville Area 5, #6-ranked Royalton 1 (in Upsala)

Area fastpitch scores:
Upsala 13, Royalton 10
Osakis 12, Melrose 2 (Osakis pounds out 16 hits)
Albany 13, Sauk Centre 0 (SC is 2-18 overall, ouch!)
Alexandria 3, Willmar 0
BOLD 6, A-C-GC 0
Paynesville 12, Montevideo 2
Benson/Hancock 13, Lac qui Parle Valley 3
Minnewaska Area 4, Morris 2
K-M-S 6, RCW 3
K-M-S 6, RCW 1
NL-S 3, LP-GE 2
Windom 6, Redwood Valley 5
Redwood Valley 10, Windom 0
Sleepy Eye 11, Buffalo Lake-Hector 1
YME 3, MACCRAY 2

Area baseball scores:
Albany 10, Sauk Centre 5
Alexandria 6, Willmar 3
BOLD 4, A-C-GC 3
NL-S 15, LP-GE 13
Paynesville 10, Montevideo 3
LQPV 11, Benson 8
MACCRAY 4, K-M-S 0 (Maccray has sewn up the Camden Conference title in 2009)
Sleepy Eye 6, Buffalo Lake-Hector 1
RCW 10, YME 0

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Fastpitch open playoffs at home on Friday, May 15 vs. the Swanville Bulldogs

The pairings have been announced for Sub-Section 5A-West.

The Jaguars Fastpitch is seeded #4, earning them a home playoff game for the second straight season and the third time in the past four seasons. They will host the Swanville Bulldogs, who are 10-3 overall and 8-2 in the Prairie Conference (2nd place).

The Jaguars have won their past 4 playoff openers, dating back to May 19, 2005, when they defeated MACCRAY by a 6-5 score.

Maple Lake is the number one seed for the second year in a row. Osakis is number two, Holdingford is number three, and Swanville is number five.

Further information on the Swanville Bulldogs...The Bulldogs are led by 2008 Prairie Conference MVP Tracy Fruechte, a senior pitcher who has had a strong season thus far in 2009. As a junior, Freuchte helped Swanville finish third in the Prairie Conference (7-5) and 8-8 overall. In addition to Fruechte, the Bulldogs return six other starters from 2008: Paige Barthel, Jordan Novak, Kristi Johnson, Nicole Mortenson, Holly Pelzer and Rachael Beckman. Mortenson, a junior outfielder, batted .531 as a sophomore.

In 2006, the Jaguars hosted Swanville in the playoff opener that year and won 8-1.

Make no mistake, Swanville will be tough. They lost to Osakis in Swanville 3-1 in eight innings on April 20th. Fruechte pitched a complete game that day, earning seven strikeouts against the Silverstreaks.

After starting the season 4-0, Swanville lost three straight. Currently they have won their past six games, including a 7-4 win over Pierz and a 6-3 win over Kimball, both in the month of May.

Ordered seedings for Sub-Section 5A-West in fastpitch:
1- Maple Lake (12-2 overall, 10-1 CMC)
2- Osakis (14-2 overall, 10-0 Prairie)
3- Holdingford
4- B-B-E
5- Swanville (8-3 overall, 7-2 Prairie)
6- Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City
7- Kimball Area
8- Browerville
9- Upsala
10- Eden Valley-Watkins

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Baseball hosts double-header on Friday in Elrosa

The Jaguars baseball team hosts a double-header with Maple Lake on Friday in Elrosa at Saints Field.

One night later, on Saturday, the Jaguars travel to Green Lake Diamonds in Spicer, facing the NL-S Wildcats in a non-conference game.

The Jaguars fastpitch team travels to Maple Lake for a 4:00 double-header on Thursday.

Jaguars Fastpitch wins 5-1 over Pierz for their sixth straight win - Baseball falls at Pierz 13-5

The Jaguars fastpitch team is now 9-4 overall and 7-3 in the Central Minnesota Conference.

The Jaguars baseball team lost a road game at Pierz 13-5. The Pioneers had lost four of their past five games, putting them two games back from front-runner Eden Valley-Watkins in the race for the Central Minnesota Conference title.

The Pioneers are the three-time defending CMC champions.

The Jaguars track and field team performed at Morris Area, on the campus of the University of Minnesota-Morris, on Tuesday afternoon. No results yet from that meet.

Area baseball results:
Paynesville 8, Minnewaska Area 7
LQPV 14, Montevideo 0
Morris Area 8, Benson 6
BOLD 13, YME 4
YME 8, BOLD 6
Litchfield 5, Annandale 0
Sauk Centre 11, NL-S 7
NLS 12, Sauk Centre 2 (6 inn)
Hancock 12, Dawson-Boyd 2
MACCRAY 11, Buffalo Lake-Hector 1
RCW 2, Lakeview 0

Area fastpitch results:
Minnewaska Area 9, Paynesville 6
BOLD 7, YME 0
BOLD 15, YME 3
Benson/Hancock 4, Morris Area 2
Annandale 10, Litchfield 0
Redwood Valley 14, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 7
Sauk Centre 5, NL-S 2

More will follow on Wednesday morning.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

What a win! Jaguars Fastpitch knocks Holdingford out of first place in the CMC, 11-10 win in eight innings

Holdingford's fastpitch team had split their games with three-time defending CMC champion Maple Lake earlier this season. This is a huge win for the Jaguars fastpitch team, now 6-3 in the CMC and 8-4 overall. They host Pierz (1-8 CMC, 3-11) on Tuesday at 4:30.

The Huskers are 10-3 overall.

The Jaguars baseball team suffered a close loss to Holdingford by a 4-2 score. They were unable to climb out of a 3-0 deficit after the first inning was complete. They travel to Pierz on Tuesday to face the 8-4 (6-3 CMC) Pioneers.

Other scores in the CMC for fastpitch on Monday:
Maple Lake 7, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 6 (ML improves to 10-2)
Rockford 10, Kimball Area 9 (Rockford is 6-5)
Pierz 3, Eden Valley-Watkins 0 (Pioneers first win in the CMC this year)

Other scores in the CMC for baseball on Monday:
Eden Valley-Watkins 6, Pierz 5 (EV-W solidifies their hold on 1st place)
Kimball Area 4, Rockford 1
Maple Lake 7, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 5

Area fastpitch scores:
Redwood Valley 8, Minneota 2
Morris Area 12, YME 2
Wabasso 10, Buffalo-Lake Hector 0
Wabasso 12, BL-H 1
K-M-S 4, Benson/Hancock 1
K-M-S 5, Benson/Hancock 4
Sauk Rapids 3, Willmar 2
Sauk Rapids 3, Willmar 2

Area baseball scores:
MACCRAY 7, Canby 4
Minneota 6, Dawson-Boyd 3
TMB 16, K-M-S 2
Ortonville 4, Hancock 1
Willmar 7, Sauk Rapids 3
Sauk Rapids 12, Willmar 2
Paynesville Area 14, NL-S 2

More will follow later on Tuesday.

This Jaguars sports update brought to you by:

Jaguars Fastpitch travels to Holdingford on Monday, Baseball hosts Holdingford in Elrosa at 4:30

The Jaguars fastpitch and baseball teams will face CMC opponent Holdingford today. The Huskers are also a sub-section opponent for both teams, so both games will have playoff implications as well.

Elrosa Saints blow 8-2 lead after 6 1/2 innings, go on to fall 12-9 at New Munich in Stearns County League opener

Video clip from the press box in New Munich:



The New Munich Silverstreaks, 2008 Stearns County League North division champions, pulled it out in the final three innings of play, overcoming a deep 8-2 deficit with a five-run eighth inning.

Elrosa now regroups to face Meire Grove in their home opener at Saints Field on Sunday, May 10th, with a 1:30pm first pitch. New Munich travels to Spring Hill the same day for a 1:30 game against the Chargers.

Around the Stearns County League on Sunday:
In Greenwald, the host Cubs lost their season opener to Meire Grove by a 5-2 score. The Spring Hill Chargers, defending Stearns County North League playoff champion, defeated Richmond at Richmond 3-0. Farming invaded Rangers country in Roscoe for the Flames' season opener and left town with a 2-0 win.

Another score in amateur baseball: Freeport 4, St.Joseph 1.

This Elrosa Saints amateur baseball update brought to you by:

Elrosa Saints opens Stearns County League play on Sunday (May 3) at New Munich - First pitch is at 1:30

The Saints open the season with a battle against Stearns County League North rival New Munich at the Silverstreaks' diamond on Sunday. The game is at 1:30.

The Saints had a rare below-.500 season in Stearns County League action in 2008, finishing 5-8 before opening up division playoffs against Spring Hill. The Saints made it a full three-game series against the 2007 Region champion Chargers, ultimately falling 7-3 at the Cold Spring diamond to end their season.

New Munich, meanwhile, went 12-1 against the league, returning to the top of the pack, where they have been for most of the past 15+ seasons in Stearns County amateur baseball action.

Around the Stearns County League this weekend...
Spring Hill travels to Richmond, Meire Grove travels to neighboring rival Greenwald, St.Martin is at Lake Henry, while Farming travels to Roscoe. All games are at 1:30 for Sunday.

The Saints host Meire Grove next Sunday, May 10, at 1:30 for the home opener at the immaculate Saints Field.

Final 2008 regular season SCL-North standings:
New Munich 12-1
Spring Hill 7-6
Elrosa 5-8
Meire Grove 4-9
Greenwald 2-11

Official Stearns County League website: http://www.stearnscountybaseball.org/

This Elrosa Saints baseball update brought to you by:
http://bayerbuilt.com/

Elrosa Saints open season with 9-8 loss at powerhouse Raymond - Friday prep scores posted

The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team opened the 2009 season with a 9-8 loss at Raymond. The Rockets are an area amateur baseball powerhouse.

Two big games took place on Friday involving Section 5A teams...
In fastpitch, the Maple Lake Irish hosted Osakis and blanked the Silverstreaks 6-0. In baseball, Royalton fell at Eden Valley-Watkins 11-3, with both teams now sitting at 9-2 overall. Maple Lake and Eden Valley-Watkins emerged as the top teams in their respective sub-sections.

Holdingford knocked off Pierz 9-8 in baseball on Friday. The game was held in Pierz. The loss was the second of the season for the Pioneers in CMC play in a span of 2 days. Pierz is now 6-2 in the league and 8-2 overall, tied with Maple Lake for second place in the league. Eden Valley-Watkins takes over sole possession of first place in the CMC with their 7-1 record.

Area baseball scores on Friday night:
Upsala/Swanville Area 13, Kimball Area 0
Eden Valley-Watkins 11, Royalton 3
Sauk Centre 7, Foley 0
Sauk Centre 12, Foley 0
LQPV 7, YME 3
Minnewaska Area 12, Benson 4
A-C-GC 7, Morris Area 0
NL-Spicer 10, Albany 4
K-M-S 7, Ortonville 3
*Montevideo Triangular:
Worthington 14, Montevideo 2, 5 inn
Worthington 6, Lakeview 5
Montevideo 15, Lakeview 4, 6 inn
Melrose 12, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 6

Area fastpitch scores on Friday night:
Minnewaska Area 2, Benson/Hancock 1
A-C-GC 3, Morris Area 2
NL-Spicer 1, Albany 0 (10 innings! Game ended with a bloop single)
LQPV 9, YME 8
Redwood Valley 13, Worthington 5
Worthington 12, Redwood Valley 6
Foley 7, Sauk Centre 6
Foley 11, Sauk Centre 3
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 17, Melrose 2
Maple Lake 6, Osakis 0 **Senior left-hander senior Ashley Kempenich struck out 16, walked one and allowed two hits to lead Maple Lake (7-1 Central Minnesota, 8-1 overall) past the Silverstreaks (10-2 overall)