Brainerd forces winner-take-all section title game after beating Bemidji
· Yahoo Sports
May 28—BEMIDJI — It's somewhat fitting that Brainerd forced a pivotal fifth game against the Bemidji High School softball team this season.
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Thursday's Section 8-4A Tournament championship is now the first of a two-part act.
The top-seeded Warriors fended off No. 3 St. Cloud 4-2 in the elimination bracket final, advancing to play the No. 2-seeded Lumberjacks at the BHS softball field. Brainerd defeated Bemidji to force a winner-take-all game at 10 a.m. on Friday in Brainerd, which earned the right to host as the higher seed.
There are few teams more familiar with each other than Brainerd and Bemidji this spring, and they played some chaotic games to get there.
It started on May 6 in Brainerd, with the Lumberjacks taking the first game in a road doubleheader by a score of 2-1. The Warriors routed the Jacks 16-2 to earn the split.
Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon in Brainerd, with the two teams meeting for a spot in the section championship. Brainerd held a 4-1 lead before thunderstorms showered over the field, suspending the game until Wednesday afternoon.
When the Lumberjacks returned to Brainerd, they scored five runs in the final two innings to win 6-5, earning the right to host Thursday's fiasco at the BHS softball field.
"It certainly adds a little more than not knowing your foe, but I also think it adds a little anxiety, too," Bemidji head coach Brad Takkunen said. "I think it makes those outs a little sweeter and the hits a little better when we get them. The reality is, tomorrow can be an all-out slugfest, because I don't think these pitchers are going to be fooling many hitters anymore. It's the fifth time we've seen each other and the fourth straight day we've seen each other."
Brainerd scored two runs in both the third and fourth innings. Tiana Herron and Ali Busbey singled in runs to give the Warriors a 4-0 lead.
Bemidji got one back in the bottom of the fourth inning on Aubrey Hanson's RBI single to score Olivia Birt, but Brainerd responded with an RBI single from Jaycee Carlson in the top of the fifth. Hadley Erlandson added an insurance run in the sixth with another RBI single.
"They took a pretty good hit today, obviously, but I'm hopeful they'll be ready in the morning," Takkunen said of his team. "They'll get a good night of rest. When they wake up, they'll realize they have as good a chance as Brainerd does to win this thing.
"I think we'll hit that reset button. It's not the path we wanted to take, but neither was playing in a suspended game and pulling out games in the very end with all of those emotions in this tournament. There is never an easy path (to state). That's why getting there is such a precious thing."
Takkunen suspects the emotions of Bemidji's rollercoaster of a Section 8-4A Tournament could've played into its sluggish start on Thursday.
"It's a weird thing, too, having a game before you," Takkunen said of the elimination championship. "You lose your routine a little bit. It just didn't seem like we were real crisp in the beginning, and then we never got into it. There's a good lesson here that no team's going to fold with a trip to the state tournament on the line. We have every bit of a chance to go get that tomorrow if we play like we can."
If there's a group that believes it can pull one more rabbit out of the hat, it's the Lumberjacks.
They went to nine innings in a first-round win over seventh-seeded Elk River. They erased a late lead against sixth-seeded St. Michael-Albertville to advance to the semifinals. They came back from a four-run deficit to win a suspended game that required two road trips.
"We've demonstrated in the past, in some pretty desperate situations, that we have the ability to win games," Takkunen said. "This is a different level, but at the same time, you have to go back to that same reserve. We just need to get a few things going."
Brainerd 6, Bemidji 1
BRD 002 211 0 — 6-8-0
BEM 000 100 0 — 1-4-3
WP: O'Grady (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 5 K)
LP: LaZella (7 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K)