By Nick Beversdorf
Reporter
Bluejay varsity softball ended their regular season run with another win over Wisconsin Rapids-Lincoln. The final score was 4-2 with Merrill mustering seven hits and committing three errors. Merrill baseball finishes the season fifth in the Valley Conference with a 5-7 record and a 9-13 record overall.
Merrill got an early lead at the bottom of the first with Drew Hoff driving in Tyler Belfiori with a sacrifice fly. Rapids tied the game at the top of the third but Merrill responded at the bottom with Belfiori again scoring a run, this time off Jared Schmeltzer’s grounder to shortstop.
Merrill got another run at the bottom of the fourth with Dan Duginski scoring off another sacrifce fly, courtesy of Trevor Asmundsen. Rapids got their last run of the game at the top of the fifth. Merrill would get their last run at the bottom of the sixth with Ryan Golisch batting in Asmundsen with a hard grounder to left.
Top hitters for Merrill include Golisch (2H, 1RBI, double), Hoff (2H, 1RBI, 1SB), Belfiori (1H, 2R, 2BB, double) and Asmundsen (1H, 1R, 1RBI). Belfiori pitched the whole game, striking out one, walking one, allowing eight hits and two runs-one earned.
“Tyler pitched a really nice game,” comments head coach Shawn Schultz. “He got ahead in the count and forced them to hit his pitch. He was able to continue this throughout the game and kept them off balance. We didn’t hit the ball as well on Thursday but we executed well when we had runners in scoring position. We had two sacrifice flies and executed a sac bunt as well. We did a good job of turning our opportunities into runs.”
Fielding was lead by Golisch with six putouts. Other fielders include Asmundsen (4PO, 4A), Schmeltzer (4PO), Kyle Juhlke (3PO), Trey Seubert (1PO, 2A), Hoff (1PO), Duginski (1PO) and Dylan Anderson (1PO).
“Both games, our pitchers didn’t walk guys and our defense played well behind them. It is nice to be playing well as we head into the tournament on Tuesday.”
Bluejay varsity baseball will have their first playoff game on Tuesday, May 31 at 5 p.m. at Marshfield.
Stats provided by GameChanger.
