Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Softball

By MATT BIGELOW – Faribault Daily News

The Buccaneers have been struggling in recent weeks. They lost in heartbreaking fashion Friday.

The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown softball team lost 5-4 to Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton in walkoff fashion Friday night, allowing back-to-back RBI hits from Emily Budach and Paiton Ahlman in the final frame.

Trista Hering struggled in the circle for the Bucs, allowing 12 hits and issuing six walks in 5 1/3 innings.

The Bucs scored two runs in the seventh inning to take a 4-3 lead thanks to a two-run double from Nicole Neutzman. But the Bulldogs responded by stringing together a walk and a single before scoring a run on an error and getting the walkoff hit from Ahlman.

Hailie Tegmeier had a solid day at the plate, going 1 for 2 with a home run and two RBI. Kate Masberg, Riley Luebben, Hayley Baker, McKenzie Kuball and Hering all hit singles as well.

WEM drops to 5-5 on the year and plays again at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at home against Randolph.

By MATT BIGELOW – Faribault Daily News

The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown softball team went 2-1 over the weekend in the Nicollet tournament, beating Nicollet and Madelia-Truman before losing Sibley East.

WEM opened the tournament with a 13-6 win over Nicollet before beating M-T 12-3. Sibley East got the better of the Bucs in a 4-3 contest.

The Bucs pounded out 24 hits in the three games combined while taking 14 walks against just 12 strikeouts.

The top hitters for WEM did a whole lot of damage. Kate Masberg had a monster day, going 6 for 12 with four extra-base hits and nine RBI. Megan Adank went 4 for 11 with six RBI and Hailie Tegmeier went 5 for 11 with a home run and four RBI.

Trista Hering was a touch off in the tournament, but pitched well enough to win in all three games. She allowed 10 earned runs in 17 combined innings, giving up 29 hits and allowing five walks while striking out 15 batters.

By ADAM J.S. HOLT – Faribault Daily News

A late rally wasn’t enough to overcome a lopsided inning early in the game.

The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown softball team gave up seven runs in the third inning in a 8-7 Gopher Conference loss at Maple River Tuesday.

“This was a frustrating loss tonight,” coach Crystal Lamont said. “We let one inning get away from us and couldn’t overcome it.”

Seven straight Eagles reached with one out in the third, as Maple River got three hits, four walks and an error to score seven runs off Trista Hering and the WEM defense. Thirteen Eagles came to the plate in the third; Maple River sent 18 to the plate in the other five innings combined.

WEM put together four runs in the fourth to pull within 7-5. Maple River scored again in the sixth to make it a three-run game. Maddy Meskan and Kate Masberg reached to open the seventh, and Riley Luebben and Megan Adank had RBI hits to get WEM within one. The tying run was at second, and a ball that fell just foul could have driven that in for the Bucs, who ended the game on a strikeout.

Adank had three hits and two RBI, while Meskan and Masberg each went 2 for 4. Hering was 2 for 3 at the plate with a pair of RBI, and her pitching line was six innings, with eight runs, three earned, on six hits and six walks, with seven strikeouts.

By MATT BIGELOW -Faribault Daily News

The Buccaneers are typically able to outhit defensive miscues. They didn’t Monday.

The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown softball team lost 5-3 to Blooming Prairie, committing five errors while only mustering six hits.

“Another close conference game,” said head coach Crystal Lamont. “Both pitchers threw well and gave up six hits. Blooming Prairie just outplayed us defensively tonight. Our bats have cooled off and when that happens you need your defense to pick you up.”

Of the five runs the Awesome Blossoms scored, just two were earned and Trista Hering stuck out 10 batters against just two issued walks in six innings.

The Bucs had an uncharacteristic day at the plate though, scoring just three runs on six hits and striking out nine times.

WEM scored first as Kate Masberg hit a two-out double and scored on a Hailie Tegmeier RBI single. Hayley Baker drew a walk to start the second inning and scored after a stolen base on a Hering single. Baker scored again in the fourth inning on a Makayla Paulson single.

“The Gopher Conference is solid and we need to be ready to play every night,” said Lamont. “Learn from your mistakes and get ready to face the next opponent.”

By MATT BIGELOW – Faribault Daily News

WATERVILLE — In a matchup featuring two of the best teams in the Gopher Conference and two of the best offenses in the league, it was superb pitching and defense that allowed the Cardinals to get out with a win.

Shelby Meyer allowed two runs on just five hits, and drove in a run on three hits to lead the Bethlehem Academy softball team to a 4-2 win over Waterville-Elysian-Morristown.

WEM hadn’t scored less than 13 runs in its first three games of the year, but the seemingly unstoppable offense was halted by Meyer and the Cardinals defense.

“I think the defense behind me was great,” said Meyer. “Waterville, they’ve got a bunch of athletic girls and really good hitters. They are going to put a bat on the ball. Going into that game you have to know you won’t get a lot of strikeouts. I tried to keep the ball down in the zone, force them to hit something they didn’t like and let the defense make plays, and it worked well.”

“Shelby did a great job keeping our hitters off balance,” said WEM head coach Crystal Lamont. “She’s not overpowering out there but she did so well hitting her spots and making adjustments against our hitters. They made great defensive plays behind her too.”

Meyer struck out three batters but only issued one walk and the BA defense committed just one error in the game.

More than that, the BA defense made a lot of plays behind her to help keep the score so low.

“I was surprised we held them to two runs,” said BA head coach Maren Viland. “We covered the field fantastically. They can really hit, they are a really good team. That’s really been us this year though. We might have an error during a game but they don’t snowball on us.”

Meyer pitched three clean innings and only faced more than four batters in an inning twice. Jess Oathoudt made several key defensive plays at third base. With runners on first and second and only one out, Delaney Donahue fielded a hard hit ball at short stop and made a high throw to Oathoudt, who was able to corral it and step on third to force an out. Meyer struck out the next batter to end the inning. And again in the fourth with runners on first and second and only one out, Oathoudt fielded a hot shot to third base and was able to beat Hayley Baker to third base for a force out to preserve BA’s lead.

Big scoring innings are often a result of errors piling up at some point and a team getting extra at-bats. BA didn’t get WEM any of those Thursday.

“I think everyone came out with the mindset that you have to play your best game,” said Meyer. “We know these are two of the best teams in the conference and we couldn’t afford to give them anything with errors. They’ll make you pay for that.”

The Cardinals scored two runs in the third inning to break a 1-1 tie, getting a two-run double from Meagan Donahue down the right field line to score Meyer and Grace Viland.

Meyer and Donahue combined for five hits and three of the team’s four RBI.

“I was most proud of the way we adjusted today especially at the plate,” said Maren Viland. “We stayed away from the high rising pitches and put pressure on their defense. We haven’t seen many fast pitchers yet this year so the message has been, ‘You need a big, long swing’ and then you get [Trista Hering] and you have to shorten your swing. And we started doing that and making better contact.”

Meyer drove in the game’s first run, hitting a sharp single to center to score Tess Glenzinski, who led the game off with a walk and a steal. Oathoudt drove in an insurance run in the fifth, scoring Meyer.

Trista Hering allowed four runs on 10 hits and a walk, but struck out nine batters in the game. BA had a chance to all but put the game away in the sixth, but Hering stuck out Viland and Meyer with the bases loaded to keep WEM within two.

A matchup featuring two of the teams that figure to factor in the Gopher Conference race all season and two teams with high aspirations when it comes to postseason play, it’s not surprising that the game was at hotly contested as it was.

“It was kind of what I expected,” said Lamont. “Close battle with two good teams in the conference. I figured we’d need five or more runs. So the score was a little lower than I expected, but it was good game.”

BA improves to 3-1 on the year and plays again at 5 p.m. Monday at United South Central. WEM suffers its first loss of the year, dropping to 3-1. The Bucs play again at 5 p.m. Monday at Blooming Prairie.

BA 4, WEM 2

BA 102 010 0 — 4

WEM 100 100 0 — 2

WP: Meyer LP: Hering

BA hitting: Glenzinski 1-3, walk; DeGrood 1-4; Viland 1-4; Meyer 3-4, RBI; M. Donahue 2-4, double, 2 RBI; Oathoudt 1-4, RBI; D. Donahue 0-4; Jasinski 1-3; Hunt 0-1, 2 Sac bunts.

WEM hitting: Meskan 0-3; Nuetzman 0-3; Masberg 1-3, Solo HR; Tegmeier 1-3; Luebben 1-3; Baker 0-3; Adank 2-2, walk, RBI; Paulson 0-3; Hering 0-2