Sports
Jacks end regular season with home and home series losses against Williston State
Tyler Ohmann
05/08/2012
The Dakota College at Bottineau baseball team has only two wins on the season. Lucky for them starting next weekend, as they host the Region XIII playoffs, that doesn’t matter anymore.
“We’re going to go in (to regions) with two wins on the season, and that’s obviously not what we wanted, but I think we’re going to come out and play pretty well,” said freshman JJ Dukes.
However, the Jacks will have to play against Williston State, who beat them four times this past weekend.
In game one the Jacks hosted and played with the Tetons, trailing only 2-0 entering the seventh inning, but Tyias Huck’s superb pitching was derailed as he and Tyler Storseth combined to allow 10 runs in the seventh to facilitate a 12-0 Tetons win.
“First game we came out really strong and had better defense (than last week),” Dukes said. “But we left a lot of runners on base, and we can’t do that anymore.”
DCB had a couple errors and a balk in the inning, which sparked the WSC rally.
Dukes and freshman Drew Allan led the Jacks with a pair of hits in the win. Scott Jameson went 3-for-5 with three runs batted in (RBI) to lead the Tetons.
The late-game rally took a lot out of the Jacks, which may have led to the 11-1 loss in game two.
“After the first game with those solid first six innings to then give up all those runs it took a lot out of us,” Dukes said. “So the second game we just came out lazy, and it seemed like we didn’t want to be here.”
In game two, Dukes took the mound, and again, the Jacks were unable to push runners across.
“The second game there wasn’t a lot we could do, they are a really good team, and they hit the ball well,” Dukes said. “We have to try and pull it together and score runs.”
The Jacks did score once as a Patrick Gate single drove in Zack McBeain for the lone DCB run.
Dukes pitched six and a third and allowed 10 earned runs and 17 hits.
Gates and Dukes each had two hits for the Jacks. Six Tetons had multiple hits, including three with three hits.
On Sunday the Jacks traveled to Williston for another doubleheader against the Tetons.
In one game the Jacks fell again by double digits as the Tetons clobbered 13 runs in four innings, and completed a five-inning, 13-2 win.
The Jacks mustered only two hits, but did manage to score twice on a two-RBI double by Chad Miller. Gates and Cody Benson scored on the play.
Travis Roberts led the Tetons as he went 3-for-3 with two runs and two RBI.
In the final game the Jacks jumped out to an early lead, scoring five times in the opening frame.
Cody Benson went 2-for-3 with two RBI, and McBeain and Sidgwick Hunter each scored and drove in runs as well.
However, the powerful Tetons offense exploded again, as they scored three times in the second, third and fourth and five times in the fifth to capture a 15-5, five-inning win.
Dallas Robirds scored four times and drove in four runs in the win.
Former BHS pitcher Taylor Milbrath started the game, and got the loss as he gave up four earned runs. Storseth completed the game, allowing five earned runs.
The Jacks had five errors.
After losing again, Dukes admitted that it is frustrating working hard and not being able to pull out wins.
“It’s actually really frustrating,” Dukes said. “We try our hardest out there and hit the ball and play good defense, and just can’t pull out the W’s.”
“It gets to you. It really does,” Dukes added.
Despite that, Dukes also believes the Jacks have what it takes to upset the Tetons or the Bismarck State Mystics in next weekends region tournament.
“I think after looking at the first game, we can stick with Williston, and the same with Bismarck, we just leave people on base,” Dukes said. “We are capable of beating anybody, but it opened our eyes a little bit.”
The Region XIII tournament at the Lumberyard begins at 10 a.m. with DCB taking on Bismarck State. DCB and the Tetons square off at approximately 1 p.m., and BSC and WSC play after that. The two top teams from Friday play in the championship on Saturday.