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)

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