Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Gopher Conference Baseball Champions

The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers are the lone champions of the Gopher Conference.

I always say anything worthwhile in life shouldn't be easy, and a conference title for a high school baseball team is worthwhile.

It took 11 innings for the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown team to defeat the Faribault Bethlehem Academy Cardinals 14-9.

Troy Dunn was at the game at Bell Field in Faribault and told KDHL the game took three hours and 15 minutes.

Bethlehem Academy had a lead going into the seventh inning but the Buccaneers were not to be denied, scoring two runs to force the game into extra innings. The Cardinals had their chances with runners on second and third and one out in the eighth and couldn't score.

The two starting pitchers did not factor in the decision, with Anthony VanThomme starting for the Cardinals and Dalton Grose for Waterville-Elysian-Morristown team. Dallas McBroom picked up the win for the pitching staff of WEM and Isaac VanThomme took the loss for the Cardinals.

Alex Dunn continued his torrid hitting for Bethlehem Academy with three hits and Ben Jandro added three.

For the Buccaneers, junior Brody Boran had three hits and sophomore Taylor Glende collected three doubles in the game. Dalton Grose had three hits, senior Tyler Tegmeier three hits, senior Reid Ayers three hits and senior Mitch Wolter clubbed a homer among his two hits.

Waterville-Elysian-Morristown had 21 hits and Bethlehem Academy 13 in the marathon contest.

The Cardinals go to Belle Plaine on Tuesday for their final regular season game and are already the No. 2 seed in the West Subsection of Section 1 Class A.

They host Blooming Prairie at 5PM Thursday at Bell Field.

Waterville-Elysian-Morristown is at St. Clair on Tuesday for a 4:30PM game and their seed is yet to be determined in Section 2 Class AA. That section is loaded with state-ranked teams all over the place.

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Bethlehem Academy softball was victorious in their first round game of the West Subsection of Section 1 Class A. The Cardinals defeated the Alden-Conger Knights 9-5 at North Alexander park.

Bethlehem Academy is the No. 2 seed and beating the No. 7 seed wasn't a walk in the park.

Shelby Meyer pitched for the Cardinals less than a week after dislocating her knee when a batted ball hit her knee in the pitching circle. She struck out 10 batters.

Sophomore catcher Grace Viland led the Bethlehem Academy hitting attack with a couple of RBI singles, a double and a sacrifice fly RBI.

The Cardinals host Blooming Prairie on Wednesday on Power 96 Radio 95.9FM with a 4:15PM pregame.

The game was moved up because Bethlehem Academy has their baccalaureate service.