Blooming Prairie’s rematch with Hope Lutheran turned out very similar to the first meeting as the Awesome Blossoms lost 2-0 and were eliminated from the Section 1A playoffs Tuesday at Todd Park.

Just like Saturday, the Patriots (17-5 overall) scored their first run on a BP throwing error. This time HL scored in the sixth with two outs when BP threw it away after a bunt by Shaina Laska. The Patriots added another run in the sixth when they scored on a wild pitch.

But it was the rallies that came up short that hurt BP (18-7 overall) the most. The Awesome Blossoms had runners on second and third with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but HL’s Felicia Meyer struck out Jordan Noble and Tayla Jones was thrown out by a step on a bunt attempt to end the inning.

“We had our chances in a few innings. We just couldn’t put the that one big play down,” BP head coach Alison Mach said. “We told the girls it was going to come down to one play. It’s going to be one at-bat. We didn’t make that play and it caught up to us in the end.”

BP also stranded two runners in scoring position in the fifth when Meyer struck out two straight hitters to get out of the jam. In all, Meyer struck out 15 Blossoms.

“We’ve never seen the rise ball before and she just kept throwing it by us,” said BP shortstop Resha Koster, who was one-for-three both times against Meyer. “I thought maybe the second time around it would come to us, but it was still just as difficult.”

After hitting third in the lineup most of the season, Mach put Koster in the leadoff spot Tuesday to generate some offense and it almost worked in the first as Koster singled and reached third on two wild pitches before Meyer got a pair of strikeouts to end the inning.

“We switched our lineup to put Resha up as much as we possibly could and we just weren’t able to finish it,” Mach said.

Koster said it was tough to be stranded at third twice in a 2-0 loss.

“Personally, that hurts a little more (than if we hadn’t been close). We had people on and we could’ve pursued it, we just didn’t go through,” she said. “It was good to get as far as we did and I’m proud of my team and my coach. We did everything we could and it just didn’t go our way.”

Koster is a senior and played her last game for BP. Katelin Strand and Mag Fogarty, who was one-for-three, are also seniors. Koster played varsity since she was an eighth grader, while Strand and Fogarty played varsity since their sophomore year.

“We have a nice bunch of seniors who will be tough to replace,” Mach said. “But we’ve got some kids coming back and we’ll be back here (at sections). It’s just always hard to end like this.”

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E

HL 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 1

BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1

BP pitching: Erica Manske (L), 7 IP, 2 H, 7 BB, 2 R, 0 ER, 8 K, HBP

BP hitting: Resha Koster, 1-for-3, 2 SB; Tricia DeBoer, 0-for-2, BB, SB; Katelin Strand, 0-for-2, BB; Jordan Noble, 0-for-3; Tayla Jones, 0-for-3; Mag Fogarty, 1-for-3, SB; Hunter Henderson, 0-for-2, SB; Anna Peterson, 0-for-3; Manske, 0-for-2

HL pitching: Felicia Meyer, 7 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 0 R, 15 K, HBP

HL hitting: Lacey Ellinghuysen, 0-for-4; Megan Luehmann, 1-for-3, BB; Meyer, 0-for-1, 2 BBs; Angie Wenzel, 0-for-1, BB; Christine Klug, 0-for-3; Jamie O’Laughlin, 0-for-3; Madison Ludford, 1-for-3; Shaina Laska, 0-for-2, BB; Jo Moore, 0-for-1, 2 BBs