The comeback kids have done it again!!!
In perhaps their finest performance of the season to date, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team defeated the three-time defending champion and No. 8-ranked New York Mills Eagles by a 5-4 score tonight in the Section 6A winner's bracket final. Trailing 4-1 through four innings, the Jaguars proceeded to hold the Eagles off of the scoreboard across their final 9 outs while scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. NYM falls to 19-6 overall and heads to the tournament's elimination bracket.
Senior Tanner Shelton pitched one for the ages with a seven-inning bout on the mound. His numbers were incredible: 93 pitches, three hits, two earned runs, one walk and eight strikeouts. All that against the Park Region Conference co-champions who average over eight runs per game and who took third place at state last year. Their lone loss at state was to Randolph, who finished 25-1 and won the Class 1A state title. The Jaguars collected 5 hits while taking advantage of 5 walks in the game and 3 Eagles errors to overcome the three-run deficit at the game's midway point.
NEXT: now winners of three straight one-run playoff games, the Jaguars (12-11) advance to the Section 6A championship series for the second time in school history. They play at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday) back at Marthaler Field at Minnewaska Area high school. If they win that game, they advance to state for the first time ever. Other information is forthcoming. B-B-E last played in a section championship in 2019, when New York Mills defeated them 7-2 to advance to state.
Let's go back to the regular season finale, when the Jaguars defeated Upsala/Swanville Area in Elrosa...
The Jaguars later met U/SA in the playoffs and overcame a 7-1 deficit in the second round to win by an 8-7 score.
Tomorrow, New York Mills faces Parkers Prairie at 2:30 p.m. at Marthaler Field in the elimination bracket final. The winner of that game moves on to the championship series to face our Jaguars. Parkers Prairie (18-6) beat K-M-S earlier today by a 10-4 score and then squeezed past Upsala/Swanville Area by a 9-8 score in the elimination bracket.
In Section 6AA today, Eden Valley-Watkins defeated St. Cloud Cathedral 3-0 in the winner's bracket final. They await to see who comes back to the championship series and play for state on Thursday this week at Dick Putz Field in St. Cloud.
