Bulldog baseballers declaw Panthers, slay Warriors
By Missy Klatt
BOYCEVILLE — In a non-conference match up, the Bulldog sluggers took on the Panthers from Prairie Farm on Monday, May 21st and easily won 9-1. Then on Thursday they traveled to Clear Lake for another non-conference game where they annihilated the competition 24-7.
Prairie Farm
Since Boyceville head coach, Michael Roemhild has been coaching the Bulldogs they have never been able to beat the Panthers. To win the Bulldogs knew they would have to play their game; being aggressive and playing good defense to back up their pitchers. And that’s what the Dawgs did. They totally shut down the Panthers offense in the first three innings allowing only 9 batters to come to the plate.
While the Panthers were left scoreless in the first three innings, the Bulldogs put three runs on the board in the first and two in the third. Garrett Joles got the scoring started for the Bulldogs when he hit a double in the first sending little brother Trett home.
The Panthers got their first and only run in the top of the fourth with a home run. Thanks in part to Panther errors the Bulldogs added another run in the bottom of the fourth. The Panthers continued to struggle in the field while the Dawgs took advantage and scored three more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, increasing their lead to 9-1.
The Panthers were limited to 7 batters in the last two innings thanks to some solid pitching from Connor Sempf and Brady Nye.
About his pitchers, Coach Roemhild comments: “Trevor Hollister pitched a solid 5 innings for us. He only gave up 2 hits while striking out 10 batters. After him Connor Sempf came in and pitched a quick inning not allowing a hit. Following Connor in the 7th was Brady Nye who came in throwing strikes and got us 3 quick outs to end the game. I was happy with all of my pitchers.”
As for the defense, Roemhild had this to say: “I was extremely happy with how my defense played. Trett caught a great game behind the plate, while throwing out another base runner. As a whole defense we played error free ball, which was great to see.”
As a team the Bulldogs had 9 hits for the game. Luke Knudtson was 2 for 3 with a stolen base and three runs scored. Walker Retz was 2 for 4 with an RBI.
BOYCEVILLE 9, PRAIRIE FARM 1
Prairie Farm………….…….0 0 0 1 0 0 0 – 1
Boyceville……………………3 0 2 1 3 0 x – 9
BOY(AB-R-H): Boda 4-0-2, Hollister 3-1-0, B. Sempf 3-1-0, Retz 4-1-2, Boesl 3-0-1, C. Sempf 1-0-0, G. Joles 4-1-1, Knudtson 2-3-2, Holden 2-1-1, T. Joles 3-1-0.
Pitchers: Hollister(w): 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 SO; C. Sempf 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO; Nye 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 SO.
Clear Lake
With a bye in the first round of the playoffs, coach Roemhild didn’t want to go a whole week without playing a game so they picked up this non-conference game against the Clear Lake Warriors. The Warriors who are also seeded number two (Division 4) had a first round bye as well.
The Warriors took the Bulldogs by surprise in the first inning when they jumped out to a 6-0 lead. With some encouraging words from Roemhild the Bulldogs came up to bat in the top of the second with an attitude that they weren’t going to give up. They put up 13 runs off of solid hitting and good base running. The Dawgs then only allowed four players to the plate in the bottom of the second, with Bryce Boda striking out two.
With the same can do attitude the Bulldogs added eight more runs at the top of third, while the Warriors squeaked out one more run in the bottom half of the inning. With three more runs in the top of the fourth the game was virtually out of reach for the Warriors. When the Warriors failed to score in both the fourth and fifth, the game was over with the Bulldogs adding a huge 24-7 win to their list of victories this season.
Offensively Trett Joles had three hits in the game with big brother Garrett coming up with two hits. Walker Retz and Cooper Boesl each had two hits as well. Luke Knudtson had one hit but it was in the form of a three run homer. He had four RBIs for the night, while Trett Joles racked up five.
After the game Coach Roemhild remarked, “It was good for these guys to have to fight through being down to a good team. We stuck with our approach and it paid off. We are really hitting the ball well right now.”
The Bulldogs are fired up and ready to take on Elk Mound in regional action on Tuesday, May 29th at home.
BOYCEVILLE 24, CLEAR LAKE 7
Boyceville…………………….0 13 8 3 0 – 24
Clear Lake…………..………6 0 1 0 0 – 7
BOY(AB-R-H): Boda 3-2-1, Reisimer 2-0-0, B. Sempf 1-3-1, Gonzales 2-4-1, Bia 1-0-0, Litomsky 1-0-0, Retz 4-1-2, Boesl 4-3-2, C. Sempf 1-0-0, Nye 1-0-0, G. Joles 3-1-2, Loback 1-1-1, Knudtson 2-3-1, Helland 1-0-0, Holden 1-3-0, T. Joles 4-4-3.
Pitchers: Boda (w) 2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 0 BB 3 SO; C. Sempf 2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO; Nye 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO.