GAME DAY! In Grant and Douglas counties (RADIO)

What a bizarre scenario for the Section 6A playoffs. Bizarre! In the bizarre world of high school sports, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team is at Ashby facing Border West...and that is legit, with both teams having about a 1 hour drive for this neutral site game. The Jaguars and Buccaneers game started at 2 p.m. in Ashby.

If the Jaguars win, they travel to Brandon-Evansville and possibly could face the Chargers on Brandon-Evansville's home diamond tonight if they move into the 6A winner's bracket.

Today's first game was aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. Thanks, Brady! Their website is: https://www.kmgk1071.com.

UPDATE in Ashby:
Thanks to a 2-run home run by Noah Jensen, the Jaguars currently hold a 6-0 lead over the Buccaneers.

UPDATE: going into the top of the 7th inning, B-B-E holds an 8-0 lead over Border West.

B-B-E starter Aiden Mueller fired a strikeout for the 3rd out of the top of the seventh inning to end the game. FINAL SCORE: the Jaguars won by a final score of 8-1 against No. 7-seeded Border West. This win improves their overall record to 15-9.

Aiden Mueller went the distance for the Jaguars with a 5-hitter, as the junior veteran pitcher earned 12 strikeouts.  

In another Section 6A game today, the B-E Chargers are hosting Benson. Early in that game, score was tied 3-3. The latest score I heard was Chargers 6, Braves 3. FINAL score: Brandon-Evansville 6, Benson 3. The Chargers will not only host the upcoming winner's bracket game...they will also play in that game even though they are the No. 3 seed of the tournament. (PLEASE someone make it make sense!!!!)

Unfortunately, I am not making the drive to Evansville tonight. I am spending time at home with family and working in our garden. The first 27 days of May had me tied up every single night...without a break.

Game updates to follow...the Jaguars have to travel 9 miles to Evansville now to face the Chargers in the winner's bracket.

UPDATE from Evansville:
The Jaguars trail 1-0 in the fourth inning.

Final: Brandon-Evansville 1, B-B-E 0.  The j

Jaguars play on Monday in the losers

 bracket at Minnewaska Area.

Jaguar baseball advances to Round II of sections (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Jaguars baseball team won 13-2 in five innings tonight against Rothsay to open the Section 6A playoffs. Seeded No. 2 out of 15 teams, the Jaguars improved to 14-9 with the win. They play on Thursday this week at 2 p.m. in Ashby. The opponent is to-be-determined...stay tuned. The opponent will be either Border West or...Ashby? I have no idea how these brackets are set up.

UPDATE: the Jaguars face Border West in the next round. The 7th-seeded Buccaneers defeated Ashby tonight 11-1 in Wheaton.

Sophomore Lance Radermacher started for the Jaguars and got the win in 3 innings on the mound. He was relieved by Noah Jensen (fourth inning) and Dylan Koob (closer).

Here's video from the bottom of the 6th inning almost 3 weeks ago:


The Jaguars were facing Brandon-Evansville on that night, a team that entered the game with an undefeated record. B-B-E won 3-0.

Time to get back to the newspaper.

Announcing...FREE summer meals at B-B-E elementary, open to the public, all youth ages 18 and younger, no registration required. Just show up and eat! On behalf of my good friend Barb Walstrom, here's the info she wants to get to the public: FREE SUMMER MEALS in Brooten at the elementary, Use door 21 (north door); Monday to Friday (except Juneteenth on June 19 and Thursday, July 4 and Friday, July 5). Breakfast: 7:45 to 8:35 a.m. and lunch: 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. THANK YOU for your attention to this matter!

Area fastpitch playoff scores on May 26:
Jackson County Central 6, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta (Section 3AA winner's bracket final)
Pipestone Area 6, New London-Spicer 3
Pipestone Area 7, MA/CA 1
Melrose Area 11, Holdingford 1 (6 innings; the Huskers season is over)
St. Cloud Cathedral 11, Kimball Area 1 (6 innings; the Cubs fall to the loser's bracket in Section 6AA)

Jaguar baseball earns No. 2 seed in Section 6A

The B-B-E Jaguars baseball team has earned the No. 2 seed in Section 6A for the upcoming postseason. The Jaguars open playoffs with a home game on Tuesday (tomorrow) at 5 p.m. in Elrosa. Their opponent will be Rothsay out of the Little Eight Conference. The Tigers, who are 0-16 overall, are the No. 15 seed.

The Jaguars finished the regular season with a 13-9 record. They settled in ahead of Brandon-Evansville (No. 3 seed and 18-2 overall) and Long Prairie-Grey Eagle (No. 4 seed and 14-4 overall) in the section pairings thanks in large part to wins against both teams. On Thursday last week at home, the Jaguars edged Prairie Conference champion LP-GE by a 2-1 score.

Two-time defending Section 6A champion Parkers Prairie is the top seed. The Panthers are 18-0 overall.

It's rough at the bottom of the section this year: the 12th to 15th seeds have a combined record of 6-59 overall.

Section 6A baseball seedings:
1. Parkers Prairie
2. B-B-E
3. Brandon-Evansville
4. Long Prairie-Grey Eagle
5. Breckenridge
6. Benson
7. Border West
8. Browerville
9. Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg
10. Ashby
11. Pelican Rapids
12. West Central Area
13. Hancock
14. Ortonville
15. Rothsay

The second round of section baseball games are on Thursday, May 28. I haven't looked that deep into the section bracket to deciphere what happens after Tuesday. I also have to go back and see what I have for baseball video. It has been a tough spring to get to high school baseball games.

Here's a video from Thursday in Braham:


The fastpitch team finished the season with a 12-10 overall record. Their postseason awards will be announced at a future time.

Elrosa is hosting Richmond this afternoon

The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team is hosting Richmond this afternoon in a Stearns County League game. They traveled to Farming less than 24 hours ago, to face the Flames, in another SCL game last night.

Last weekend, the Saints went 2-0 with a 13-3 exhibition win over Starbuck on Friday, May 15. On Sunday, May 17, the Saints traveled to Meire Grove and won 10-2 to improve to 2-1 in the SCL-North division standings.

**Sunday update: the Saints took a 13-3 loss at Farming last night. They were out-hit 14 to 9, and 6 errors proved costly. 

Today, Elrosa won a 3-2 walk off against Richmond with 3 runs scored in the bottom of the 9th inning.

Next: the Saints travel to St. Martin on Friday, May 29 for an 8:15 p.m. SCL game at Ray Weber Stadium.

On Monday: we have two Memorial Day programs to choose from. The Brooten American Legion and Legion Auxiliary hosts at 10 a.m. at the Brooten Pavilion. The Belgrade VFW and VFW Auxiliary hosts at 11 a.m. at Olson Auditorium in the high school.

They graduated: Class of 2026 officially begins "adulting"! (VIDEO)

Welcome, B-B-E Class of 2026, to the adult world! The Class of 2026 in Jaguar Country held its commencement ceremony last night in the high school gymnasium. Altogether, graduation lasted 1 hour and 6 minutes.

Here's video from the end of graduation and after it was completed:


Remember! Grove Lake will hold a Memorial Weekend event tomorrow, Sunday, starting at 1 p.m. at the Grove Lake Chapel. This is located about 3/4 of a mile south of the center of Grove Lake on Pope County Road 39.

During the day Sunday, when I'm not at church or at Grove Lake, I've got 56 garden vegetable plants to get in the ground. Uff Da. We have finally gotten proper spring gardening weather.   

In a new blog post, I'll get some Elrosa baseball updates posted.

This is graduation day for the 37th straight year in Jaguar Country

To watch the graduation ceremony for the 37th class of Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa high school, click on the link to move to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: BBEschoolGraduation2026.

And! I have to acknowledge a mistake in the graduation section of this week's newspaper. The father of Kadynce Haider is not Todd Haider...it's Brad Haider. Todd is Brad's younger brother. It made for quite the text message thread between Todd, Brad and their mom, Kathy Haider! Brad is Kadynce's dad, and he is a 1998 graduate of B-B-E high school. He was a standout football player for Paul Beuning and a standout wrestler for Chuck Marks and his wrestlers. Todd Haider was a terrific wrestler and also a marvelous football and baseball player. In Todd's senior year, he was one of three seniors for the Jaguar baseball team in 2000 along with Travis Schoumaker and the late Adam Hanson.

The Brooten city council meeting agenda has been posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog: BrootenCouncilAgendaMay26.

Three games deep, Jaguar fastpitch season ends; Baseball Jaguars edge LPGE (VIDEOS*)

The B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team had chances all game to push runs across home plate, but the defense of the Braham Bombers made big plays in many innings to erase the basepaths while earning a 7-0 win in the Section 4A elimination bracket.

Both teams had 3 defensive errors, and Braham had 14 hits to 9 by the Jaguars. B-B-E had one hit batsman, but the Bombers had 4 stolen bases plus 2 extra base hits. Both teams had 9 stranded runners. For B-B-E, Brielle Worms and Mya Worms split pitching duties.

Here's a video from the bottom of the 2nd inning:


The Bombers scored the game's first runs in the bottom of the 2nd, when they took a 3-0 lead. The third and fourth innings saw Braham expand the lead to 5-0 and then 7-0. The final 2 1/2 innings of the game brought no scoring.

Here's a video from the bottom of the 6th inning:


Senior Kenna Lieser finished a prolific fastpitch career with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate today. Unofficially, I believe she finished her six varsity seasons at B-B-E with 145 hits. No. 2 hitter and sophomore Lillian Thompson was 3-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt. Sophomore Paighton Oeltjenbruns had 2 singles, and Kamie Fischer and Ava Lieser had one single each.

B-B-E's season closes out with a 12-10 record, which marks the first time since 2009 that the fastpitch team finished with a winning record. Between starters and substitutes today, only 2 players for the Jaguars were seniors: Ava Lieser and Kenna Lieser. The starting line up had just one senior (Kenna Lieser) and only two juniors (Mya Worms and Kamie Fischer). This was a very young team that made big accomplishments this spring.

Today's game was played at Braham in Isanti County. The facilities of their softball park on the south end of their school campus are terrific. Kudos to their community! The Bombers move on with a 17-6 record. They play next Tuesday in the next round of the elimination bracket.

TWO big events coming in the next two days: B-B-E's 37th annual graduation ceremony will take place tomorrow, Friday, at 7 p.m. at the high school gymnasium. Also, on Saturday, please come to the Brooten Pavilion for the 1st annual BratFest! Hosted by the Jenniges family and Jenniges Meats of Brooten.

I'm working remotely and almost out of battery! I'll get some video attached to this blog post after 10 p.m. tonight.

In baseball news...big news!
The B-B-E Jaguars baseball team defeated Prairie Conference champion Long Prairie-Grey Eagle with a walk-off 2-1 win in 8 innings tonight. Aiden Mueller started, and Cameron Loe got the win in relief. This should give B-B-E the No. 3 seed in next week's Section 6A playoffs. We'll see.

GAME DAY! In Isanti County (VIDEO)

For one of the longest-ever trips for a section postseason game that the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's sports department has made, the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team is traveling to Isanti County this afternoon for a Section 4A elimination game at Braham. This is a No. 5 vs. No. 2 game in the section, which now has 6 teams remaining in contention for the state tournament.

Both B-B-E and Braham are 1-1 in the playoffs. The loser sees their season end today. The winner advances to the elimination bracket semifinal, which would take place next Tuesday, May 26 at a site-to-be-determined. Braham is 16-6 overall. The Jaguars owe them after the Bombers ended our girls' basketball team's season back in March in the Sub-Section 5A-East championship game.

Here's a video going back to May 5, when the Jaguars defeated Paynesville Area:


Worth noting: the top 3 teams in the Central Minnesota Conference all earned Top 7 seeds in a very tough Section 6AA this spring. These teams are Kimball Area (CMC champion), Holdingford and Eden Valley-Watkins.

Back at home, in Elrosa, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team is hosting Long Prairie-Grey Eagle in a big non-conference section game. The JV plays at 4:30 p.m. in Elrosa, and the varsity game will follow at about 7 p.m.


**Update: through 3 1/2 innings, the Bombers have a 5-0 lead.  A couple key early mistakes have hurt the Jaguars considerably.

Final: Braham 7, B-B-E 0 in 7 innings. A new blog post later tonight will feature additional game details plus updates from the baseball games in Elrosa.