The Burnsville U12 Blazers made their first out of state trip to Watertown SD a successful one collecting a hard fought 2nd place finish and having a lot of fun throughout the weekend!

Saturday’s 9am game vs. Redfield started out warm and sunny as the Blazers came out hitting scoring 11 runs in the first three innings. Michelle Stage & Kristina Hippe found the hot bats to kick start the tourney off for the Blazers leading them to a 14 -1 victory.

Game two was against Bullet Graphics and 14 again seemed to be the magic number as the blazers continued to hit and play solid defense. Miya Wawracz-Harms, and Journee Rogers led the way with one big hit after another. Blazers win in 4 innings 14-0

The rain came down in game 3 vs. Speigle Construction and cooled off the Blazers bats . Both offenses struggled to put anything together in-between downpours. The game was called after three innings with  Burnsville ahead 3-0. Rain continued throughout the day and play was halted until Sunday morning. A much needed rest!

Sunday came with warm weather and the Blazers bats heated up . Right off the bat Burnsville loaded the bases and Katherine Flack made the most of it with huge grand slam home run to deep left field. The Blazers put up 12 runs the next two innings to put away Spiegel Construction 15 -3 with Katrina Grass, and Flack doing most of the damage.

The semi- final game against Redfield was a hard fought win. The Blazers trailed 3-1 until the fourth inning when Alex Aune flexed her muscle hitting her 1st home run of the year to tie the game at 3-3 .Gaby Lo was a home run short of the cycle and played great defense at 1st base. Haley Diggan played great second base fielding everything that came her way.  Aune wasn’t done there as she led off the 6th inning with at solo shot to put the game away for the Blazers. Blazers win 11-5

The much anticipated game against Jurgen’s printing did not disappoint as both teams played at a high level. Jurgen’s led things off with a home run to left and an early 3 -0 lead. Burnsville scratched out a run in the 2nd to make it 3-1. Abbey Luckraft kept the Blazers in the game with 3 nice catches in left field including a running shoe string catch to keep the game close. Jurgen’s returned the favor to Luckraft her next time up with a great catch on a hard drive down the line. In the fifth inning the Burnsville pressed the Jurgen’s defense and scored four runs to take a 5-4 lead. Jurgen’s came right back to tie it at 5-5 in the bottom half of the inning. Jurgen’s scored 5 runs in the bottom half of the 6th on hard drives all over the field. Burnsville couldn’t find a way to battle back & lost a very fun game 10-5.

Wanting another shot at Jurgen’s Printing the Blazers first had to win a rematch against Spiegel Construction. Emily Olsen and Meg O’Brien provided the spark going three for three and scoring four runs. A much needed victory 18-0!
The rematch with Jurgen’s Printing for the championship was again a hard fought game by both teams. Makayla Ericksen played a great game and hit several hard shots off her bat. Unfortunately the ball seemed to find its way into the shortstops glove. After the third, the game was 3-1 Jurgen’s. The Blazers seemed to run out of gas and couldn’t string any hits together. Jurgen’s scored five in the 4th to take an 8-1 lead. The Blazers once again tried to press the play in the 7th and get back in the game, but had two runners thrown out at home and 3rd base. Blazers lose 11-4  Time to look for a new 3rd base coach! 

Lots of fun and a 2nd place trophy. Way to go! In addition to bringing home some hardware, the Blazer girls came away with some new friends and what we hope could become a long fought, friendly border state battle.

Congratulations to Jurgen’s Printing and Blazers for an outstanding job this weekend!!!