A win and a loss

Freshman Jace Mueller was outstanding on the mound in Elrosa for the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team, who won 12-2 in five innings tonight against Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. The Jaguars belted 15 hits against two Falcons pitchers while Mueller limited the visitors to 5 total hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. All 12 of B-B-E's runs were earned.

Now winners of 6 straight ball games, B-B-E improves to 5-7 in the Central Minnesota Conference while remaining in fifth place.

Next: the Jaguars (12-7 overall) travel to Eden Valley-Watkins on Thursday this week while still holding a shot at gaining fourth place in the standings. EV-W came into the night tied for third (7-5) with Royalton. A-C-GC falls to 2-11 in the CMC and 5-11 overall.

In fastpitch news...
In a battle for third place in the final CMC standings tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team suffered a tough 8-6 loss at Eden Valley-Watkins. The Jaguars had rough go in the fifth and sixth innings, when the Eagles outscored the Jaguars by a combined 5-1 margin to take an 8-1 lead. In the top of the seventh, the Jaguars made a comeback bid that fell short. Four errors were a contributing factor along with 7 stranded runners.

For the second straight season, the Jaguars finished 7-7 in the CMC and in fourth place. Maple Lake, who took third last season, finished 6-8 in the CMC in fifth place. EV-W (14-8) went 8-6 for third place alone.

The fastpitch team waits for Section 4A seeding to take place tomorrow (Wednesday). Updates to come later in the day tomorrow. Now 11-8 overall, B-B-E completed the best regular season since 2008, when they were 12-5 heading into the Section 5A playoffs. In 2009, the Jaguars were 10-8 going into the postseason. Last year, they were 10-9 before heading into the Section 3A tournament.

In track and field news...
In the CMC championships at Maple Lake tonight, B-B-E 7th grader Brooklyn Breitbach won the 800-meter conference title with a career-best time of 2:24.63. Other results will be published in this week's newspaper.