Head Coach Cory Jewison has believed in the JWP baseball team’s potential all season. And while they’ve flashed that potential at times, they’re showing teams not to underestimate them in the Section 1A playoffs.
With the #9 seed, the Bulldogs traveled to Blooming Prairie for the first round of playoffs on Wednesday, May 22, and defeated them. Their prize for doing that was to face a Southland team that had only lost one game this season at Riverland College’s baseball fields in Austin on Saturday, May 22. They pulled off the upset 7-4.
Bulldogs 11, Blooming Prairie 4
The last time the two Gopher Conference teams faced each other was near the beginning of the season on April 4, when the Bulldogs narrowly downed the Blossoms in a 2-1 defensive battle in their home opener. It showed the talent of the Bulldogs’ defense, but it was part of a string of games where they struggled offensively to start the season.
Blooming Prairie had a slightly better record than JWP at 10-7. However, as coach Jewison pointed out, “All teams are now 0-0 in the playoffs.”
With that mentality, the Bulldogs were the victors again. But this time, it wasn’t even close. They had one of their best offensive showings of the year, tallying 11 runs to the Blossoms’ four. With that, JWP had the pleasure of not only beating a conference rival again, but they kicked them out of the playoffs.
Bulldogs 7, Southland 4
Southland was a state-ranked team whose only loss was a 2-0 tilt to Section 1A rival Lyle-Pacelli, who was also state-ranked. It was going to take a team effort for JWP to hand Southland’s Rebels their second loss of the year.
And they did it.
At first, the Bulldogs struggled to crack through their defense, with only one run in the second inning and Southland replying with four runs. However, they held on as they figured things out. The seniors led the way, especially pitcher Ty Melchior, as they found success in the top of the sixth inning with six runs that allowed them to take the lead.
Although the Rebels made easy work of them at the top of the seventh inning, the Bulldogs succeeded with an out at first, a catch by senior Gavin Krause in the outfield, and the final dagger by Nolan Morsching, who sealed the game by catching a floater for the final out.
The game ended with JWP earning seven runs off of four hits, while Southland had to work harder for their four runs with six hits; each team had an error.
The team faced Hayfield on Monday, May 27 and lost a close 1-0 defensive battle. They faced Rushford-Peterson – a team that they usually struggle against – later that evening and lost 5-3. We will update this story when we get more information on the games next week.
