Blue Jays' season comes to an end

Just two outs from a spot in the semifinals on Thursday night, instead the Jamestown High School baseball team was on the way home Friday after a disappointing end to the season at the West Region tournament in Williston.

After a crushing, eight-inning loss to Minot in the quarterfinals, Mandan jumped out to a big early lead in a punch to the gut the Blue Jays could not bounce back from as the top-seeded Braves rolled 8-1. The Blue Jays lost to No. 5 seed Minot 14-6 in eight innings on Thursday. They led 4-2 going into the top of the seventh inning in that game.

Seeded fourth and with a region-leading 20 wins heading into the tournament, going 0-2 and having the season end abruptly was a tough pill to swallow for coach Cory Anderson’s team.

“I feel bad for those kids because they worked to get to that point, then all of the sudden it kind of unravels and it’s over pretty quickly,” Anderson said. “You have to bring a different mindset to postseason play and you have to create your own fortune. We just did not take care of business. It’s nobody else’s fault, we just didn’t get it done.”

The Blue Jays finished the season at 20-14, avoiding the West Region play-in game for the first time in four years. Those felt like small consolations, however.

“It’s disappointing because it’s a group that is certainly capable,” Anderson said. “We just didn’t execute very well in any phase of our game this weekend and when you get into a tournament-type format, you don’t have a lot of margin for error.”

The Blue Jays were in a hole early.

After Mandan ace Parker Harm, who is just a freshman, set the Blue Jays down in order in the top of the first, Harm used his bat to put his team ahead.

After Tyler Krenz yielded a single to the leadoff batter, Harm belted a 2-run home run to put the Braves up 2-0 in the blink of an eye. They tacked on three more and were up 5-0.

“After the loss (Thursday), Mandan getting those five runs kind of took the wind out of our sails,” Anderson said.

The Blue Jays’ lone run came on a Ben Walz RBI-single in the top of the fourth.

The highlight of the two games was Danny Fischer’s pitching performance against Minot. The right-hander allowed just two runs through six innings before the Magicians rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh, getting help from a couple of JHS defensive misplays in the inning.

“Danny pitched well. He was very deceptive. He used his off-speed pitches,” Anderson said. “He deserved a better fate.”

The Blue Jays rallied to tie the game with two runs in the bottom of the seventh, although the probably should have won it. They ran into two outs, but still managed to tie it.

The wheels came off in the top of the eighth, however, when the Magicians scored eight times.

The Blue Jays weren’t the only surprise early entrant. Second-seeded Bismarck Century was also bounced. After losing to sixth-seeded Bismarck 2-1 on Thursday, they were eliminated by No. 7 Bismarck St. Mary’s (3-1) on Friday.

West Region Tournament

At Williston

Friday

Loser-out game

Mandan 8, Jamestown 1

Blue Jays 000 100 0 — 1 3 1

Braves 501 101 x — 8 11 3

Tyler Krenz, Riley Schafer (2) and Joey Gebhardt. Parker Harm and Brady Zittleman. W—Harm. L—Krenz. 2B—Mandan, Tyler Johns, Logan McDowall. HR—Mandan, Harm.

Thursday

First round

Minot 14, Jamestown 6, 8 Innings

Magicians 010 100 48 — 14 12 5

Blue Jays 100 120 20 — 6 7 10

W—Marcus Quist. L—Danny Fischer.

Highlights: Jamestown, Jake Stilwell 4-5, Tyler Ukestad 3-5. Minot, Austin Berntson 3-6, HR, 2B, 3 RBIs, Grant Larson 3-4, 2B; Hunter Oothoudt 2-3.

Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com

Tags: sports, jays, baseball