Stealing wins
Blooming Prairie’s Carsten Ingvalson dives into second base during a steal attempt. Ingvalson and the Awesome Blossoms stole a collective 17 bases against JWP. Staff photo by Johnnie Phillips
When it comes to speed on the base paths, Blooming Prairie baseball might just be an opposing catcher’s worst nightmare.
The Awesome Blossoms’ starting nine are all threats to steal bases and displayed their ability to do so by piling up 17 steals against JWP in an 11-2 win last week.
The Awesome Blossoms are now 2-0 to start the season and don’t show any signs of slowing down.
The team’s speed has forced 14 errors across its first two games, consistently punishing any opposition that struggles to keep up.
Against JWP, the Awesome Blossoms’ defense kept the Bulldogs off the board early with some steady defense.
The most notable play of the game was a flyout to deep centerfield where senior Brady Kittelson made the catch and threw a dart from near the warning track to punch out a tagging runner from third.
Catcher Carsten Ingvalson caught the missile from Kittelson and made a diving tag to turn the double play.
The massive double play kept JWP from scoring, preserving Blooming Prairie’s 3-0 lead in the top of the fourth.
Blooming Prairie’s offense utilized the momentum to keep its foot on the gas.
A mixture of hits, walks and errors allowed multiple runners to get on base and begin to wreak havoc.
Kittelson was the first runner to attempt a steal and made it to second before the ball was in the shortstop’s glove.
The initial steal was the catalyst for Head Coach Matt Kittelson to give all of his guy’s the green light to take second.
After posting three runs in the third inning and another in the fourth, Blooming Prairie took a comfortable 4-0 lead into the fifth inning.
JWP responded with two runs in the top of the fifth, but a seven-run onslaught by the Awesome Blossoms in the bottom of the sixth put the game out of reach at 11-2.
Pitcher Alex Lea was in control all game and threw six full innings allowing just two runs on three hits with six strikeouts.
Kittelson was the team’s best batter on the day with three hits, two runs and three RBIs.
The Awesome Blossoms’ win over the Bulldogs put the team atop the Gopher Conference with a 1-0 conference record.
Up next for Blooming Prairie is a road game against Lewiston-Altura on Monday, April 14 at 4 p.m.
The team also traveled to Kenyon-Wanamingo on Monday, April 7, however, stats and results were not available at the time of press.
|
Team |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
5th |
6th |
7th |
Final |
|
JWP |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
BP |
0 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
7 |
X |
11 |
Player Stats
H R RBI
Kittelson 3 2 3
B. Ingvalson 1 1 1
Lea 1 0 1
Staloch 0 2 0
C. Ingvalson 0 2 0
Zwiener 0 2 0
Bishop 0 1 0
DenHerder 0 1 0
Gimbel 0 0 1
IP H R K BB
Lea 6 3 2 6 1
Staloch 1 0 0 1 0