In a battle of two teams coming into the game on five-game losing streaks, the Badger/Greenbush-Middle River Gators beat the Crookston Pirate Baseball team 3-0 in a pitcher’s duel at Jim Karn Baseball Field in Crookston. BGMR had five hits while Crookston had four hits in the game. “It was a well-played game, well-pitched,” said Pirate Coach Mitch Bakken. “We gave them at least one run and the balls we hit were at people.”
The first two BGMR batters were retired before Dominick Vacura reached on an error and scored on an Ethan Waage single for a 1-0 lead in the first inning. “That was tough. It was a routine play and the throw went into the dirt,” said Coach Bakken. “Its plays like that have happened all year and we need to tighten things up or we will continue to struggle.”
BGMR added another run in the second inning when Aaron Westling and Kristian Weets had back-to-back singles. After a strikeout, the Gators Aven Augustson flew out to left field to score a run for a 2-0 lead. “They had a decent hit up the middle and the next batter reached his bat out and hit a bloop up the middle,” said Coach Bakken. “Give them credit for putting the ball in play.”
Crookston didn’t get their first hit until Brooks Butt singled in the bottom of the fourth inning, but the next two batters struck out. “Brooks continues to have some good at-bats for us,” said Coach Bakken. “He is better after he sees a few pitches and had a good at bat.”
Crookston’s Carter Bruggeman singled with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, but the next two batters popped out in the infield.
BGMR’s Waage doubled and scored on an error for a 3-0 lead in the sixth inning. Crookston brought in Cade Coauette to pitch, and he struck out the next three batters.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Crookston’s Cade DeLeon doubled to lead off the inning. The next batter popped out to the shortstop, and they caught DeLeon off second base to get two outs. The next Pirate struck out, and BGMR won the game 3-0. “Obviously, we aren’t going to win if we can’t score,” said Coach Bakken. “We made it kind of exciting at the end, but we struggled against this pitcher and really haven’t been able to get many hits all year. I was happy with our pitching with Brooks Butt and Cade Coauette. They threw well for us and that was definitely a positive in the game.”
Crookston drops to 5-8 on the year and will host Fergus Falls on Monday. BGMR improves to 7-5 on the year.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
| BGMR | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| CROOKSTON | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
| Brooks Butt-Crox | 5.0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Cade Coauette-Crox | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Noah Warne-BGMR | 7.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
For CROOKSTON
Brooks Butt – 2 for 3
Cade DeLeon – 1 for 3, double
Carter Bruggeman – 1 for 3
For B-G-MR
Ethan Waage – 2 for 3, run, rbi
Aven Augustson – 1 for 2, rbi
