Blue Jays Roundup: Softball dismantles Century

BISMARCK — One thing is for sure — when the Jamestown High School softball team gets going — they don't hold back.

The Blue Jays put together a 10-6, 17-2 sweep of Bismarck Century Thursday evening in the capital city. The pair of wins improved the Jays' record to 3-1 in conference and 5-3 overall. The next action for the Jays is a tournament in Dickinson Friday and Saturday.

The squad will face undefeated Minot on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. and will play their rescheduled doubleheader against Mandan at noon on Wednesday. Both games are slated to be held at Trapper Field.

Head coach Mike Soulis and his crew took control early on Thursday, scoring one right away in the top of the first to establish a 1-0 lead. Century struck back in the bottom of the fourth to tie things up but the Jays remained steady getting two more runs in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead.

That's when they ran into a little bit of trouble.

Century's bats got hot in the bottom of the fifth and the Patriots sent four across the plate to take a 5-3 lead but Katie Falk got the Jays out of the inning, taking down Century's Cali Tollefson.

A hot six-run inning in the sixth put the Jays up 9-5 and the squad managed to maintain the lead the rest of the way. As a team, the Jays tabulated 13 hits.

Falk tossed all seven innings giving up six runs off nine hits. She struck out seven and walked three. At the plate, the senior was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs.

Falk's cousin, Ella was 2-for-5, Rylee Joseph was 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles while Torrie Mack was 0.400 at the plate with a double and two RBIs. Jada Walter was hitting 0.200 in the first game. Her one hit was a double.

Jamestown 10, Century 6

JHS 100 026 1 — 10 13 2

BC 000 140 1 — 6 9 3

JHS: Katie Falk; BC: Lexi Tollefson W — Falk, L — Tollefson

Highlights: JHS — Falk (7 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 7 K) 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Ella Falk 2-5; Rylee Joseph 2-5, 2 2B; Torrie Mack 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Avery Graves 2-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI; Jada Walter 1-5, 2B.

BC — Norah Baerlocher 2-3, 2B; Koia Krenz 2-3; Grace Grimm 1-4, 3B, RBI; Brooklynn Oswald 1-3, 3B; Lexi Tollefson 1-3, 2B.

Jamestown 17, Century 2

JHS 902 51X X — 17 18 0

BC 001 10X X — 2 2 1

JHS: Katie Falk; BC: Ashlyn Schumacher, Madison Weber (4), Lyli Bird (5) W — Falk, L — Schumacher

Highlights: JHS — Makenna Nold (5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 6 BB, 13 K) 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI; Ella Falk 3-3, 2 2B, 5 RBI; Avery Graves 3-4, 2 2B, RBI; Leah Trumbauer 3-4, RBI; Addison Graves 2-4, 3 RBI; Rylee Joseph 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Torrie Mack 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Sophia Bond 1-2, 2B, RBI.

BC — Lexi Tollefson 1-3, 2B, Schumacher 1-2.

With an inexperienced roster, the Jamestown High School girls tennis team have had to take some lumps so far this year — but they are getting better.

The Blue Jays dropped 9-0 to Bismarck Century Thursday afternoon to fall to 0-3 in the West Region standings. The Blue Jays are slated to open up their home schedule on May 4 with a conference dual against Bismarck High. First serve is scheduled for 4:15 p.m.

The Jays opened the season last weekend with a pair of road losses against Dickinson and Williston.

"We obviously had a lot of girls playing up positions because we lost all of those seniors so the pace of the ball, pace of the play, pace of everything was fast," Burkett said. "That was a good experience, good learning experience — I think each match we saw progression as far as ball speed and how we accommodated the new pace of play.

"Going into today, I think we saw the same thing where we were getting into longer rallies, hanging into the points, the fastballs aren't seeming so fast, we're able to adjust and get used to the speed," he said. "You don't quite see it from the match scores but we're right on the brink of being able to go out and win some more games, which gets into winning sets, which gets into winning matches."

In order to secure a couple of wins in the coming weeks, Burkett said the squad is going to have to keep things consistent during the practice sessions.

"Consistency in hitting the ball is going to be the big thing for us through the next week or so," Burkett said. "We also need to make sure we are including that pace of play in our practices."

Bismarck Century 9, Jamestown 0

Singles

No. 1: Maya Kubsad, BC def. Hana Lang 6-0, 6-0

No. 2: Erika Lee, BC def. Isabel LeFevre 6-0, 6-1

No. 3: Ashley Kindem, BC def. Mylee Michel 6-1, 6-2

No. 4: Ava Dunlop, BC def. Elise Roberts 6-0, 6-0

No. 5: Kate Miller, BC def. Daphne Olson 6-0, 6-0

No. 6: MyKaela Jorgenson, BC def. Isabelle Jones 6-0, 6-0

Doubles

No. 1: Kubsad/Dunlop, BC def. Lang/Roberts 6-0, 6-3

No. 2: Lee/Kindem, BC def. LeFevre/Michel 6-0, 6-1

No. 3: Miller/Jorgenson, BC def. Olson/Jones 6-0, 6-1