Softball: Blossoms fall to Randolph in nine innings
Published 8:37 pm Thursday, May 12, 2016
Blooming Prairie’s Kalyn Naatz makes solid contact against Randolph in BP Thursday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
BLOOMING PRAIRIE — The Awesome Blossoms softball team is making improvements inch by inch this spring and it was a couple of feet from picking up it’s biggest win of the season in BP Thursday.
The Blossoms (6-8 overall) had a couple of chances to score a walk-off win, but they lost 10-7 in nine innings to Randolph after the Rockets scored three unearned runs in the top of the ninth.
Blooming Prairie’s Anika Nowlan heads to first base on a slap hit against Randolph in BP Thursday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
BP had runners first and second with one out in the seventh and it couldn’t get the winning run in and Bria Baldwin had a flare that nearly scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth, but Randolph was able to haul it in. Baldwin, who tied the game at 6-6 with a two-run single in the fifth, nearly had another big hit in the sixth with two runners on and two outs, but it was caught at the center field fence.
“We’ll just reflect back on what we did. I give props to all of [Randolph’s] defense. They were stellar,” Baldwin said. “We’ve been hitting pretty well and we’ve gotten out of some ruts. This was like playoff softball and it’s going to help us in the long run.”
Each team had 15 hits in the game and BP held a lead at 7-6 when eighth grader Maya Lembke came up with a sacrifice fly in the fifth. But the Rockets (10-6 overall) tied things up in the top of the sixth with a one-out triple and an RBI groundout.
“We were back and forth. We had our chances, but we didn’t take advantage of them,” BP head coach Ali Mach said. “All in all, from where we were a couple of weeks ago to where we are now, we’re playing much better softball and that’s what we need to be doing. There’s not a whole lot to complain about.”
Blooming Prairie’s Elly Strunk pitches for the Awesome Blossoms against Randolph in BP Thursday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Lembke, an eighth grader, has stepped up and given BP a boost at the catcher position this spring. She was two-for-four with two RBIs on Thursday.
Mach said that Lembke is also emerging as a leader at a young age.
“We ask a lot out of Maya. She’s done a great job,” Mach said. “Every game she’s improving and every day our team is getting better. We’ve had some illnesses and we’ve had players missing, but we make it work.”
Randolph 1 1 0 3 1 1 0 0 3 — 10 15 0
BP 4 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 — 7 15 4
BP pitching: Elly Strunk (L) 9 IP, 15 H, 2 BB, 10 R, 7 ER, 7 K
BP hitting: Linnea Sunde, 2-for-5, R; Emma Christianson, 3-for-5, double, 2 R; Bria Baldwin, 2-for-5, 2 RBIs, 2 R; Strunk, 3-for-5, RBI; Maya Lembke, 2-for-4, 2 RBIs, R; Anika Nowlan, 1-for-4, RBI; Kalyn Naatz, 1-for-4, RBI; Jerrin Jax, 1-for-4, RBI; Abby Wayne, 0-for-3, BB