A 1-0 start is what's in the book for the No. 2-seeded B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team, after they dispatched No. 7-seeded Ortonville 7-2 in the Sub-Section 3A-North opener. The Trojans end the season 5-15 overall, while the Jaguars advance in the Section 3A tournament bracket with a 9-11 record. This is B-B-E's first playoff win since 2021, when they won 17-10 in a play-in round game against Ortonville before falling 7-6 to top-seeded Benson (who made it all the way to the Section 6A finals that year).
Game two in Brooten today features No. 3-seeded Renville County West and No. 6-seeded Dawson-Boyd.
Against the Trojans, the Jaguars battled through four scoreless innings before they broke through in the bottom of the fifth. Anna Jaeger, batting at the top of the order for the Jaguars, took a pitch on her upper leg to get on base, and the veteran senior advanced to second on a passed ball. Kenna Lieser then hit an RBI-single to score Jaeger from third base to break up the scoreless tie. The Jaguars ultimately scored three total runs to go up 3-0 going into the sixth.
In the sixth, Brooklyn Fischer's two-RBI single to left field made it a 5-0 lead. Two more runs were scored when Kacey Fischer hit a ground ball to the second baseman, but the throw to first was bobbled to bring in Faith Radermacher and Brooklyn Fischer to make it 7-0.
The Trojans got two back in the top of the seventh before shortstop Kacey Fischer made a tremendous throw to first base to end the game.
An 11-hit attack helped fuel the late outburst of offense for the Jaguars, who had freshman Mya Worms pitch a complete game for her first career playoff win.
**Here's Coach Funk in a post-game interview today:
B-B-E's 9-11 record is the best since the 2009 season, when the Jaguars went 1-1 in the Sub-Section 5A-West playoffs. This year, the playoffs will continue on after Round 2 regardless of the outcome of tonight's game, as the Sub-Section 3A-North tournament features a double elimination format once a team wins the playoff opener. More on that will be posted later tonight. For now, we need to focus on getting another playoff win tonight!!! Let's go!!!!!!!!
Here's a video featuring the final out recorded against Ortonville today:
Today's B-B-E games are being broadcast on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. Brady will be covering the third game of today, which will feature our Jaguars! They take on the winner of game two, which is starting at about 4:50 p.m. Stay tuned here for updates on when the last game will get underway.
Update out of Upsala tonight...in a huge game with seeding implications, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team defeated Upsala/Swanville Area 6-0 to improve to 13-6 on the season. They later trailed Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 6-0 in the fifth inning in the second game of the doubleheader.
**Update: RCW won 13-4 while ending the Blackjacks' season. Game three of the day started just shy of 7:00 p.m. between both Jaguar teams.
After 3 innings, the game is tied 3-3! More to come in a new blog post, including baseball updates.
