One-run loss sends Jaguars to elimination bracket + golf and track/field news

The B-B-E Jaguars baseball team suffered a 1-0 loss to No. 3-seeded Brandon-Evansville on Thursday in the Section 6A winner's bracket opener. It was a difficult pill to swallow, but the Jaguars now have to regroup and prepare for a big game on Monday. The next game is at 2 p.m. on Monday, June 1 at Marthaler Field at Minnewaska Area high school. The opponent will be Long Prairie-Grey Eagle.

The Thunder (16-5 overall) bounced K-M-S from the playoffs with an 11-0 win on Thursday at Browerville.

Fun fact! In the past 3 seasons plus this current playoff run, the Jaguars are 13-5 in Section 6A postseason games. They went 5-0 in the 2023 section playoffs to earn the program's first-ever state tournament berth.

Here's a brief video from the postgame huddle in Elrosa on Tuesday:


In golf news...
Walker Winter tied for 11th place individually as the top finisher for the B-B-E Jaguars boys' golf team at the Section 5A tournament, which was held at Eagle Creek Golf Course in Willmar on May 20 and May 27. The section finals took place on Wednesday this week with Winter plus his teammates Owen Roering and Cash Lehner participating. After shooting a 90 on May 20 in the first round, Winter shot an 81 in the finals for a total 36-hole score of 171. Other scores for B-B-E: Owen Roering finished with a 178 (90-88), good for an 18th-place tie. Cash Lehner, a freshman, finished with a 194 (89-105) to take 33rd place.

Here's a video featuring the All-Conference announcements at The Lynx Golf Course on May 18:


Olive Olson, a freshman, was the only B-B-E golfer to earn a spot on the All-Central Minnesota Conference teams. A total of 14 athletes earn that award, which is based on 72 holes of golf across April and May.

Recruiting will ramp up considerably for the golf teams going into the summer months. Both the boys' and girls' golf numbers need to increase.

In track and field news...
Seventh grader Brooklyn Breitbach on the B-B-E Jaguars track and field team ran a spectacular 1600-meter run at the Section 5A meet on Wednesday in Collegeville. She finished with a career-best time of 5:23.47, which was good for fourth place out of 16 athletes. Breitbach smashed her previous career-best time of 5:35.7, which she earned over a week ago at the Sub-Section 5A-West meet in Litchfield on May 19.

Taylor Pieper placed 10th (53.93 seconds) in the 400 open as the top boys' finisher.

I've got more to find out and write about from the section meet. Others from B-B-E competing at Section 5A included Mason Douvier, Ziva Miller and Whitney Anderson.

Also, in Section 4A, West Lutheran (the No. 3 seed) swept Gentry Academy in the championship series to earn a spot in the upcoming Class 1A state fastpitch tournament.

Switching gears...
By Friday night, I'm blogging from the Hampton Inn of Oakdale. Five families of my daughter's West Central Wildcats AAU basketball team are staying here. This is the last weekend of our Wildcats season, which started back in April. It's been a privilege to see my daughter participate and become a better athlete through this AAU program this spring. The sports coverage of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper has suffered fr om it, but that's all on me and on the decisions I've made while splitting the grueling work of being a small business owner with wearing the "Sports Dad" hat that I've got on my head frequently these days.

That's enough blogging. Time to wrap this up and be ready for the 9 a.m. tip-off of tomorrow's first game at Woodbury high school!