Blooming Prairie baseball received a wakeup call on Friday when they traveled into KoMet country and lost a hard-fought game non-conference game, 9-8, to host Kasson-Mantorville. Blooming Prairie had not experienced a loss since April 9, when they suffered their only Gopher Conference loss at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown.

Kasson-Mantorville jumped ahead Friday by scoring two runs with their first at-bat, and scored another three runs during their next plate appearance. The Mustangs scored at least one run in every inning after that except the sixth.

The Blossoms failed to produce any runs in the top of the first inning, but crossed the plate once in the second, third, and fourth innings, bringing the score to 7-3 in favor of K-M. BPHS rallied back for five runs in the top of the fifth to make it 8-7 in their favor, but the Mustangs tied the game at 8-8 in the bottom of the inning.

The sixth inning went quietly for both teams. The Blossoms failed to get the potential winning run across the plate in the top of the seventh inning. Kasson-Mantorville took advantage of the home team's last at bat, and scored the winning run in the bottom of the inning.

Kraig Olson pitched all seven innings for the Blossoms, allowing only three earned runs on eight hits, striking out six and walking six Mustangs. Everyone on the team had a chance to play in the game.

"We are hitting well enough, but tonight we did not come up with the big defensive play when we needed it. This was a real wakeup call for us," said BP coach Chris Staloch. "The bus ride home was a silent one, and everyone had a chance to reflect on the loss and its personal meaning for every player."

When asked how this experience will affect the team and its focus for the future, coach Staloch commented, "We will turn this loss into a positive experience, and become better for it. Our motto has been that we view every team we play as if they are the conference champions. Our mindset is that we have to go out and play hard enough to beat them. We go through this one game at a time"

Linescore:

BPHS0111500--8158

K-M2311101--987