The Crookston Pirate Softball team opened up their season on Saturday in Greenbush as part of the Badger/Greenbush-Middle River day in the park. Crookston played three games and started the season with a 21-0 loss to the BGMR Gators. In the second round they lost to East Polk (Fosston and Win-E-Mac) 27-2. In the final round, Crookston lost 18-14 to the Blackduck Drakes.
CROOKSTON VS BGMR
In the first game of the season, Crookston had a tough task of taking on one of the top softball programs in the state when they played the 2019 state runner-up Badger/Greenbush-Middle River Gators and came up short 21-0. To top it off, Crookston only had four of their players with any varsity experience.
BGMR scored six runs in the first inning on six hits (four singles, a double, and triple). BGMR really broke the game open in the second inning with 11 runs. Every batter in the line up reached and scored a run in the inning to take a 17-0 lead. BGMR added two more runs with a two rbi triple in the third inning for a 19-0 lead. In the top of the fourth inning, Crookston’s Emily Bowman recorded the first, and only hit of the game. Crookston didn’t score and BGMR added two more runs in the fourth inning and cruised to a 21-0 victory in the first game of the season for both teams. “We learned a lot in the game,” said Pirate Coach Sunny Bowman. “We learned we have some things to work on.”
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | R | H | E | |
CROOKSTON | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
BGMR | 6 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 21 | 17 | 0 |
Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
Jenna Coauette – Crox | 4 | 17 | 21 | 17 | 5 | 0 |
Lauren Stenberg-BGMR | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
For Crookston –
Emily Bowman had the only Pirate hit
CROOKSTON VS EAST POLK
The second game of the day was against East Polk, a co-op of Fosston and Win-E-Mac. East Polk had a bunch of hits and used aggressive baserunning to cruise to a 27-2 victory.
East Polk took advantage of nine walks and three hits to score 15 runs in the first inning. They added three more runs in the second inning to take an 18 to 0 lead.
Crookston finally got on the board in the third inning when Quinn Siegle reached on an error. After a Pirate strikeout, Emma Boll followed with a single. Boll stole second base to put runners are second and third. Emily Bowman struck out, but the ball got past the catcher and Siegle scored the first Pirate run of the game. Amber Cymbaluk walked and the bases were loaded. Jenna Coauette flew out to centerfield, but it was deep enough to allow Boll to score to get within an 18-2 deficit.
East Polk responded with nine runs in the bottom of the third inning for a 27-2 lead.
In the top of the fourth inning, Brianna Kelly reached on an error and Siegle walked. East Polk was able to record three outs on the next three Crookston batters to pick up a 27-2 victory. “East Polk had some aggressive baserunning,” said Coach Bowman. “There baserunning put players into scoring position and they had some hits to knock them in and kept doing it all game long.”
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | R | H | E | |
CROOKSTON | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
East Polk | 15 | 3 | 9 | – | 27 | 8 | 2 |
Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
Julia Lallier – Crox | .2 | 3 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 0 |
Jenna Couette – Crox | .1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Emily Bowman – Crox | 2 | 3 | 12 | 8 | 5 | 1 |
O. Rosendahl – EP | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
For Crookston –
Kenze Epema – 1-1
Emma Boll – 1-3, run
CROOKSTON VS BLACKDUCK
Crookston faced off against Blackduck in the final game of the day. The two teams lost their first two games of the day. The game started with a ball roll to see who would be the home team and Crookston won the roll and was the home team.
Blackduck started the game with a couple of hits and scored a run on a sacrifice for an early 1-0 lead. After a couple of outs, Blackduck was able to score two more runs for a 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the second inning, Julia Lallier, Quinn Seigle, and Brianna Kelly all reached and would later score to tie the game 3-3. Later in the inning, Emma Boll and Emily Bowman reached and scored to give Crookston a 5-3 lead after two innings.
The top of the third inning was a big one for Blackduck as they scored eight runs for an 11-5 lead. Kendall Bergquist and Lallier reached and scored in the bottom of the third inning to bring Crookston within an 11-7 deficit.
In the top of the fourth inning, Crookston retired the first two Blackduck batters before the next three batters reached and one run scored to give the Drakes a 12-7 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Amber Cymbaluk, Jenna Coauette, Bergquist, and Lalier all reached and one run scored. The Pirates threat ended when Blackduck was able to turn a double play to get out of the jam and Crookston trailed 12-8 after four innings.
Blackduck took advantage of two Crookston errors to score two runs in the top of the fifth inning, but Crookston’s Jenna Couaette got a pop out and then struck out the last two batters to get out of the inning, but the Drakes led 14-8.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Kelly reached and Emily Bowman doubled to score a run. Bowman scored on a passed ball and Crookston trailed 14-10.
Blackduck scored two runs on passed balls in the top of the sixth inning to take a 16-10 lead.
In the bottom of the inning, Bergquist reached with a base hit, Seigle, Kelly, and Tate all walked to reach and a run scored. Two more runs scored on passed balls. Bowman reached on an interference call on a Pirate baserunner and scored another run after back-to-back singles by Cymbaluk and Coauette and Crookston trailed 16-14.
Blackduck added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning to take an 18-14 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Crookston’s Lallier reached with a base hit, but the next three batters were retired and Blackduck held on for an 18-14 victory. “I have a group of girls who aren’t afraid to test the limits of the opponents and get after it,” said Pirate Coach Sunny Bowman. “Our hitting came alive in the third game and every player but one scored.”
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
Blackduck | 3 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 18 | 17 | 6 |
Crookston | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 14 | 11 | 3 |
Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
H. Reiplinger – Blackduck | 7 | 11 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
Jenna Coauette – Crox | 7 | 17 | 18 | 14 | 7 | 5 |
For Crookston
Amber Cymbaluk – 4-4, 2 rbi
Emily Bowman – 2-5, 3 runs, 2 rbi
Julia Lallier – 2-5, 2 runs
FOR THE BLACKDUCK GAME BOX SCORE, CLICK HERE
Crookston drops to 0-3 on the year and will travel to Grand Forks to play Grand Forks Central on Monday.
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