Boyceville batsmen drop four games to conference leaders
By Cara L. Dempski
It was a tough week for Boyceville on the baseball diamond.
The Bulldogs, who faced a quartet of conference leaders, lost all four of its contests this past week including three Dunn-St. Croix match-ups.
The Boyceville baseball team welcomed large Dunn-St. Croix co-leader Elk Mound to Evenson Field last Tuesday, May 2. Despite early defensive success, the Dogs gave up ten runs in the final three innings including six in the seventh inning to fall to the Mounders 11-1.
The squad then took to the road for a pair of back-to-back contests.
Traveling to Spring Valley last Thursday, May 4 for a match-up against the small Dunn-St. Croix leading Cardinals, the Bulldogs dropped their second straight game, 6-2, after being shut out until the seventh inning.
The skid hit three games when Boyceville headed to Clear Lake the following day, Friday, May 5. While coach Michael Roemhild said pitcher Bryce Boda worked well, the rest of the team was not playing behind him. The result was a 9-1 non-conference loss to the Warriors – front runners in the East Lakeland.
Returning home to host Durand Monday, May 8, Boyceville had the unenviable task of facing yet another conference leader. The Panthers share the top spot in the large D-SC with Elk Mound.
The game did not go well for the Bulldogs who lost their fourth consecutive contest in a 17-2 shellacking by the Panthers.
Having lost four straight and six of their last seven games, the Bulldogs sit in fourth place in the large Dunn-St. Croix standing with a 3-6 mark. They are 4-8 overall.
Boyceville will look to end its recent slide when it hosts Mondovi this Thursday, May 11. The team will also be hosting a triangular this Saturday, May 13 against Colfax and Prairie Farm. The Bulldogs will then have a few well earned days of rest before welcoming rival Glenwood City to town on May 18.
Elk Mound
When Boyceville’s defense is clicking along on all cylinders, they are a team to be reckoned with.
Just ask Elk Mound.
Boyceville, who employed the services of five pitchers in the seven inning game, trailed Elk Mound just 2-1 after five innings.
But the Mounders offense finally erupted for nine runs in the final two frames including six in the decisive seventh inning as the Large Dunn-St. Croix’ co-leader scored an 11-1 victory.
THE WINDUP — Bulldog pitcher Brady Nye replaced senior James Palmer at the mound against Elk Mound May 2. He worked two and two-thirds innings with four hits, four runs and a single strikeout. —photo by Cara L. Dempski
“The score is deceiving,” coach Michael Roemhild said of the game. “In the top of the sixth inning with only two outs, we were only down 2-1. After that, the wheels came off and outs were hard to come by.”
The Bulldogs showed for nearly six innings that they could hang with the Mounders, but Roemhild said his team needed more than four hits to beat a team of the Mounders’ caliber.
Boyceville’s defensive armor appeared nearly impregnable for the first four innings with the exception of Hunter Adelman’s second-inning score that put the Mounder ahead 1-0.
The Bulldogs began to have difficulty in the fifth when Carter Pritchard scored for the Mounders to make it 2-0.
Boyceville finally broke through in the bottom half of the inning when Kyle Holden doubled and scored off of Mounders starter Ethan Kjellberg to make it a 2-1 game.
But the Mounders’ offensive onslaught proved too much for the Bulldogs.
Dane Lew, Blake Rosenthal and Logan Bergh all scored to give Elk Mound a 5-1 lead in the sixth on just a pair of hits aided by two Boyceville errors.
The Mounders turned three hits and three walks into six runs in the seventh to cop the 11-1 win.
Elk Mound finished with 11 hits to Boyceville’s four.
Besides Holden’s double, the Bulldogs got singles from Brendan Sempf, Luke Knudtson and James Palmer.
Palmer started the game on the mound for Boyceville, and despite allowing just two hits and one run and striking out two in three innings of work, he suffered the loss. Brady Nye took over in the fourth inning and pitched two and two-thirds, allowing four hits and four runs with one strikeout. Cooper Boesl pitched for one-third inning and allowed a pair of hits and four runs, while Bryce Boda pitched an innings with two hits and two runs.
Kjellberg, who struck out 11 Bulldogs, went all seven frames to pick up the win for the Mounders.
ELK MOUND 11, BOYCEVILLE 1
Elk Mound……..0 1 0 0 1 3 6 — 11
Boyceville………0 0 0 0 1 0 0 — 1
Spring Valley
The Bulldogs out-hit the Cardinals 12 to eight, but it just was not enough when Boyceville traveled to Spring Valley May 4.
Despite logging more hits, Boyceville lost the game 6-2.
Coach Roemhild said James Palmer pitched well, but the rest of the team had one inning where everyone was not giving 100 percent effort, and that, according to the coach, proved to be the Bulldogs’ undoing.
The Dogs and Cards appeared to be testing each other the first three innings, as the game was scoreless.
That was until Dylan Bune and Sam Verges scored in the bottom of the fourth to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
The Spring Valley squad tacked on another four runs in the fifth to lead 6-0, but the Bulldogs did not give up.
They held the Cardinals scoreless in the sixth before Brendan Sempf and Palmer scored two runs in the seventh. Sempf walked to lead off the inning and Palmer reached on an error. Both came around to score on consecutive singles by Luke Knudtson, Kyle Holden and Cooper Boesl. Holden and Boesl picked up the RBIs.
But Spring Valley stepped up its defensive game, and did not allow any further Boyceville runs to end the game leading 6-2.
Boesl picked up three hits in four plate appearances and Luke Knudtson and Bryce Boda each had a pair of hits.
Palmer, who added a double; pitched four innings, allowing six hits and six runs while striking out three. Brady Nye took over the mound for the final two innings and allowed just two hits.
BOYCEVILLE 2, SPRING VALLEY 6
Boyceville…………….0 0 0 0 0 0 2 — 2
Spring Valley………..0 0 0 2 4 0 0 — 6
Clear Lake
Boyceville ended last week with a non-conference contest at Clear Lake on Friday, May 5.
Despite walking nine times and being hit by two pitches, the Bulldogs were only able to muster a single hit and score in its 9-1 loss to a strong Warriors squad.
Roemhild expressed pride in how Bryce Boda performed on the mound, and dismay at how the rest of the team played behind him.
“He (Boda) threw 62 pitches in two innings, and because of errors, we allowed six outs in one inning,” Roemhild said. “We won’t beat anybody letting that happen. When our defense is struggling, our offense needs to pick it up, and that didn’t happen.”
Kyle Holden was responsible for Boyceville’s only run, which came in the second. He reached base after being hit by a pitch, took second when Cooper Boesl was also hit by a throw. He advanced to third on a Jaden Reisimer single and scored on a ground out by junior Jayson Gonzales, who earned the team’s only RBI and hit for the game.
Clear Lake scored a pair of runs in the first and fifth innings but struck for five runs in the second powered by doubles from Daymond Bad Horse and Noah Wieczorek.
Bad Horse took the pitching win, giving up just a hit and a run in five innings of work.
Bryce Boda allowed five hits and seven runs in two innings while striking out three batters. Brady Nye pitched four innings and logged five hits and two runs.
BOYCEVILLE 1, CLEAR LAKE 9
Boyceville……………0 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 1
Clear Lake…………..2 5 0 0 2 0 0 — 9
Durand
Two big innings proved costly for the Bulldogs when they hosted large Dunn-St. Croix co-leading Durand Monday, May 8.
The Panthers struck for nine runs in the top of the third innings to break open a scoreless game and went on to a 17-2 victory at Evenson Field.
The Bulldogs, who responded with their only two runs in the bottom half of the frame, committed five errors in the game.
But Durand tacked on eight more scores in the fifth to bring an early end to the contest after the Bulldogs went down in the bottom half of the fifth to claim the win.
Durand collected 13 hits in the 15-run victory lead by Tyler Kilboten’s 3-for-4 hitting performance which included a pair of doubles and Christian O’Keefe’s two extra base hits – a three-run home run and a fifth-inning double – that accounted for five RBIs.
Boyceville’s two hits were registered by Micadan Kahl and Brendan Sempf. Sempf singled with two out in the bottom of the third. Kahl, who returned to the lineup following an injury, belted a two-run homer in the next atbat for the Bulldogs only runs.
Josh Biesterveld pitched the first four innings to get the win surrendering just two hits, one of which was Kahl’s home run.
Senior James Palmer, who started and made it through two and two-thirds innings, was tagged with the pitching loss after giving up seven runs on five hits and a pair of walks. Brady Nye threw an inning and a third surrendering a pair of runs and hits while Bryce Boda threw the fifth inning and was tagged for eight runs on six hits and two walks.
BOYCEVILLE 2, DURAND 17
Durand……………….0 0 9 0 8 X X — 17
Boyceville……………0 0 2 0 0 X X — 2