Le Mars faced a tall task in the MRAC on Tuesday night facing #15 Bishop Heelan in a doubleheader at home. The Bulldogs dropped both games by finals of 16-5 in five innings in game one and 4-0 in game two.
The Bulldogs found themselves on the wrong end of things early in the doubleheader. Bishop Heelan scored six runs in the first inning to jump out to a big lead. They followed that up with five more in the third and four in the fourth to take a 15-run lead into the bottom of the fourth. For Le Mars, this was their first true competition in the MRAC this season. Head Coach Keely Steffen says it was good to finally compete against a top-tier team in the MRAC.
Once the Bulldogs were down 15-0, they would need to add four runs in the bottom of the fourth to avoid the run-rule. They did that and proceeded to score another run in the fifth before getting run-ruled in that inning. Coach Steffen was pleased to see her team fight back in that instance.
The second game started with a run from Bishop Heelan in the top of the first inning, and that was it for a long time. The next runs would not be scored until the top of the seventh inning when Bishop Heelan increased their lead to 4-0 and ultimately win by that final. In that time, Le Mars reached base eight times but couldn’t score any of those runners. Coach Steffen says her team didn’t execute what they needed to in those instances.
As the Bulldogs move on from this loss, they will continue their tough stretch through MRAC play into next week. The Bulldogs will first be at Sergeant Bluff-Luton on Thursday and then take on Sioux City East at home on Tuesday. Coach Steffen says the Bulldogs will work on some things in practice to be better prepared for the tough tests ahead.
Le Mars’ record falls to 10-4 and 7-2 in the MRAC. Bishop Heelan improved to 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the MRAC.
