Catching up a little tonight...I looked at the latest Central Minnesota Conference standings, and the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team is in a tie for fourth place with Royalton at 2-2. In first is undefeated Kimball Area (5-0, 4-0), while Eden Valley-Watkins and Holdingford are tied for second place at 3-1 each.
Yesterday in a CMC doubleheader at Royalton, the Royals earned a series split with EV-W. Royalton lost game one 13-6 before they won 11-9 in the second game. Beyond first-place Kimball, I am seeing a fair level of parity throughout the remaining seven teams. This bodes well for the Jaguars, who I feel are fully capable of earning more wins than losses between now and playoff time.
From the Swanville road trip that started their season...
Here's a video from the top of the third inning, during which the Jaguars built a 2-0 lead against the Bulldogs:
Here's a video from the top of the 4th inning against Swanville on April 5, when the Jaguars loaded the bases on no outs but unfortunately came up empty:
That 2-0 lead was erased in the bottom of the third, when Swanville plated three runs. The Bulldogs, who are currently receiving votes in the state polls, eventually won by a final score of 7-2.
I've got some notes on track and field plus golf to go through on Saturday. I spent over 5 hours today at Chris Jensen Auto Repair in Belgrade helping install a full set of new brake lines in my 1999 Buick LeSabre. Fingers crossed...Old Red should be back on the road on Monday. She sat all winter at the shop staying off of the salt-covered roads this past winter...time to get my recession buster back in action.
I added a story online that I didn't have space for in the April 18 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper about local service organizations. It's not a lengthy story, but it highlights what I saw this past winter: terrific support for our local events. The Belgrade V.F.W. has held monthly steak fry and pork chop feed nights, and their last one had over 120 attend. Sometimes this event fell on a Saturday night when many are out of town for sporting events (example: state wrestling on March 2), and on the slower nights they get a turnout usually around 90. Whether it's 90 or 120 or more, the V.F.W. is grateful for the support they receive. In late January of this year, the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper had a story that outlined all the groups who received monetary donations from the Belgrade V.F.W. in 2023. They are one of at least a dozen service organizations that I work hard at promoting throughout the year.
While it's obviously early in the season, as of this weekend, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team is in a virtual tie for first place in the Central Minnesota Conference. They are 2-0 in the CMC along with Holdingford, and Paynesville Area is 3-0. They have a huge game on Tuesday coming up when they travel to Eden Valley-Watkins. The Eagles are 2-1 in the CMC and 3-3 overall. The CMC loss was by a 12-2 score against bordering rival Paynesville Area last Monday.
Late Saturday night...I posted a short web article about Chuck Sagedahl, whose funeral was held this morning in Brooten. You can find what I posted on the newspaper website by clicking here: https://t.ly/Zqquh. I still have to upload a video I've edited that features part of his HOF induction speech that he gave at the induction ceremony on January 29, 2022. It was really something else. Watching his speech brings tears to my eyes. He was such a wonderful man.
I finally have baseball plus track and field albums added to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's spring 2024 sports folder at the SmugMug gallery...you can find the spring albums by clicking here: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/BBE-Spring-Sports-2024.
