Top-seeded Blackduck opens 8-A playoffs today

BLACKDUCK – With a 17-3 record the Blackduck baseball team earned the top seed in the East Sub-Section 8A baseball tournament and will begin its postseason today when it hosts No. 8 Laporte.

Today’s other first-round matchups send No. 5 Remer to No. 4 Kelliher-Northome, No. 6 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley to No. 3 Lake of the Woods and No. 7 Red Lake to No. 2 Cass Lake-Bena.

Today’s winners will advance to the sub-section semifinals which will be played May 31 at Bemidji State at noon and at 2 p.m. The semifinal survivors will square off at 5 p.m., also at BSU.

The sub-section semifinalists will advance to the Section 8A tournament which will be played June 5 and June 7, also at BSU.

Softball

Blackduck won its sub-section playoff opener 13-8 over Red Lake County Central but the Drakes fell 12-0 to top-seeded BGMR in the second round.

The other area 8A softball teams were first-round victims. Kelliher-Northome lost 15-5 to Lake of the Woods, Red Lake was blanked 10-0 by Red Lake Falls, Laporte fell to NCE by the same core and Cass Lake-Bema dropped a 12-0 decision to Sacred Heart.

In East Sub-Section 8-2A action Bagley blistered East Grand Forks 19-0 in the first round but the second-seeded Flyers were beaten 10-3 by Northern Freeze in the next round.