The Bulldogs lost their last two regular season softball contests and entered the playoffs on Monday looking for their first victory of the season.The Bulldogs were seeded seventh in the sub-section and faced Annandale in a first-round game on Monday at 5 p.m. in Annandale and lost 10-2 to the Cardinals to end their season. Full details of this game will be in next week's paper.
Should they have won that game, the Bulldogs would have played yesterday in Eden Valley against either Maple Lake or Kimball. The sub-section championship will be tomorrow at 5 p.m. in Eden Valley. The top-seed in the sub-section are the New London-Spicer Wildcats, who won the West Central Conference South behind starting pitcher Jill Clark.
Last Friday at home, the Bulldogs lost their last regular season game to Eden Valley-Watkins 9-5.
Miscues killed the Bulldogs' chances as they committed ten errors. "We'd have won a couple ball games this year if they'd just do the routine things well," said coach Murry Rafferty.
In the first inning, the Eagles scored five runs with a hit batter, a single, and three straight Paynesville errors. Only two of those runs were earned.
The Bulldogs clawed back with two runs in the second and two more in the fourth. In the second, Kelsey Moser doubled and scored, and Tricia Hemmesch reached on an error and scored. In the fourth, Carrie Hemmesch and Moser both reached on errors, stole second, and scored for the Bulldogs.
With the score 5-4, the Bulldogs yielded four more unearned runs in the fourth on two hits and two errors.
Rachel Miller, who had two hits in the game, scored the last run for Paynesville in the bottom of the fifth. Tiff Haag drove her in with a single to make the score 9-5.
Tricia Hemmesch and Kelly Loesch also had RBIs for Paynesville.
The top five hitters in the Eagles' lineup did all of the damage against the Bulldogs. Each batter had a hit, and together they scored all nine runs. Mandy Pearson, Jessie Thielen, and Kim Geislinger each scored two runs apiece.
Jessica Louis, pictured above, pitched a complete game for Paynesville and allowed just five hits, two walks, and two earned runs. "She pitched pretty well," said Rafferty. Errors, however, allowed seven unearned runs to score.
| Eden Valley-- | 500 | 040 | 0 | - 9 | 5 | 5 |
| Paynesville-- | 020 | 021 | 0 | - 5 | 4 | 5 |
Melrose 11
Paynesville 0
The conference champion Melrose Dutchmen shut out Paynesville 11-0 in the Bulldogs' final conference game on Tuesday, May 11.
Sara Weber, the conference's MVP, pitched a two-hit shutout over five innings against the Bulldogs.
Weber also was two for two at the plate with two walks. Nancy Rademacher led Melrose at the plate with three hits, two runs scored, and four runs batted in.
Kelsey Moser and Kelly Loesch had the only hits for Paynesville.
The Bulldogs threatened to score in both the second and the fourth innings. In the second, Moser singled and Tracy Hoffman walked to put two runners aboard. In the fourth, Loesch doubled to center field and Hoffman walked again, but each time the Bulldogs were retired without scoring.
The Bulldogs' games against Cathedral and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa last week were cancelled due to rain.