Jaguars fastpitch wins playoff opener, baseball drops two at HL-W-W

The Jaguars fastpitch team won their playoff opener via shut out for the second straight year.

The Jaguars fastpitch team led 9-0 after 4 1/2 innings were in the book tonight against St. John's Prep in the Sub-Section 5A-West play in round. The final score was 10-0 in a five-inning game.  They've now won every playoff opener since 2004. Up next: a trip to #2-seed Osakis for a quarterfinal round game tomorrow (Friday) at 5:00pm.

At Winsted, the Jaguars baseball team lost 6-2 and 13-5 to slip below .500 for the first time this season. They did finish 7-7 in the Central Minnesota Conference, good for fourth place alone. It's their best mark in the CMC since the 2008 season, when they finished as runners-up with a 10-4 record. Maple Lake won this year's title with a 13-1 record; their lone loss was to B-B-E. Pierz clinched second place with a 3-2 win at Rockford tonight.

Area baseball scores on May 17:
Melrose Area 11, Sauk Centre 4 (Mainstreeters led 4-2 after the 1st inning and then faded fast)
New London-Spicer 11, Minnewaska Area 5
Maple Lake 8, Holdingford 1
Rockford 16, Pierz 2
Upsala/Swanville Area 13, Eagle Valley 1
Paynesville Area 7, Albany 6 (Bulldogs clinch a share of the WCC-North title)
St. John's Prep 6, Royalton 0

In other news, the Minnewaska Area school district ended both the soccer and cross country programs at a special school board meeting on Wednesday night. Beginning next year, the fall sports at Minnewaska will consist of girls' tennis, girls' swimming and diving that is paired with Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta, volleyball and football. It is really big news in my opinion, and in the case of soccer, the move to cut the sport should have taken place years ago due to declining enrollment and budgetary issues they've had since 2002.