Baseball playoffs update

It was quite a night for the Central Minnesota Conference on Friday.

In the Sub-Section 5A-West quarterfinal round, the last part of single-elimination in the bracket, sixth-seeded Kimball Area roughed up third-seeded Pillager in a 13-2, five-inning win. Ninth-seeded Eden Valley-Watkins also won big, beating up top-seeded Browerville in a 12-2 win.

Fourth-seeded Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg beat fifth-seeded St. John's Prep 4-3. The only higher-seeded team that won was Upsala/Swanville Area. The second-seeded Patriots beat seventh-seeded Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 12-6.

Here's the teams advancing into the double-elimination portion of the tournament: USA, Kimball Area, EVW and KMS.

It was tough to see these scores. If the Jaguars had beaten EVW, a lot of hopeful baseball fans believed we had a shot at beating Browerville. That would've set up the very short trip to Sunburg this Tuesday, May 26 for the sub-section semifinals against KMS. I see no reason why Jacob Weller, our starter in Thursday's playoff opener, couldn't have started that night. Weller one-hit the Fighting Saints in a complete game on May 8 in a 7-0 shut out win. Following that out, the Jaguars would've landed a spot in the sub-section finals, a game they have played in just one time in school history (1995, a loss to Dassel-Cokato in the two-class system).

If they made it all the way to the sub-section finals, they would've played either USA or Kimball, teams they've beaten this season.

*Don't forget about the upcoming Memorial Day programs in Jaguar Country. See all the details on page four of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice.