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Ste. Genevieve, Missouri – The Bernie Mule’s baseball season came to an end on Memorial Day with a loss of 11-2 to private school Valle Catholic in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
Bernie played well in the first four innings scoring two runs giving them the lead early; however the 5th inning became the Achilles heel of the Mules and they were plagued with errors. They tallied five errors. Valle Catholic was able to capitalize on their mistakes scoring eight runs.
“I told the kids we’ve played good defense all year and for one inning we just kind of lost it,” stated Bernie’s head coach Darrin Shipman. “I don’t know what happened. We misplayed several balls. They hit the ball hard, but we should have made several of those plays. We counted six plays we should have made and five that counted as errors in the book. Against a good team like Valle you just can’t do that. We haven’t all year, but we did today and it cost us.”
Valle Catholic earned four of its eleven hits scoring eight in the top of the 5th inning. Two of those hits were triples and another was a double.
The Warriors’ Dan Bergtholdt allowed only two runs, five hits and struck out three. He pitched the first five innings of the game.
“We knew their pitcher was good and threw it well,” continued Shipman. “We knew it was going to be a battle. We have won some low-scoring games during the regular season so we weren’t surprised it was low-scoring because the wind wasn’t blowing out like it was at Bernie the other day. I would take a 2-0 lead going into the 5th most days. We didn’t play good defense in the 5th and it cost us.”
Austin Beck helped put the Mules on the board first in the bottom of the third inning hitting a single allowing a runner to score.
“He has hit consistently (speaking of Beck) around .400 all year. He’s just a sophomore and has done a great job for us. We are proud of the way he has improved from last year to this year.”
Justin Stanfield earned an RBI off a single hit in the bottom of the fourth to give the Mules a 2-0 lead. After that it was all Warrior power.
Devin Trammell pitched an excellent game. Defensively the Mules had challenges. “We thought he pitched really well,” commented Shipman. “We think the game should have been a 2-1or 2-2 in the fifth if we had made all the plays. We thought his curve ball looked good today.”
B.J. Jennings relieved Trammell. Matt Vernon came in and pitched in the last two innings and did not allow one run.
“I know we are all hurting right now, but they can’t take away that we won all those games. (Bernie had an 18 game winning streak.) We won the Malden Tournament, we won the District Tournament and we won the Conference Tournament. We didn’t play well today, but we had a great season with great kids,” stated Coach Shipman. “What I am most proud of it our character! When we were doing well we never were ‘unclassy’ about it. Our kids were great kids and I am proud of them for that most of all.”
Bernie fans were great this year as well. The stands were packed at each game and many drove the two hours to support their team in Ste. Genevieve. They truly bleed blue in Bernie!
Bernie finished its season with a record of 20-4 and won 18 games in a row before their sectional loss. That speaks a lot about their commitment and reputation!
Final Score Valle Catholic 11 Bernie 2
Valle Catholic 0 0 0 0 8 3 0 - 11 11 2
Bernie 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 2 5 6
WP - Dan Bergtholdt - LP - Devin Trammell - HR - Bergtholdt (V). 3B - Evan Lauer (V), Justin Roth (V), Nolan Wood (V). 2B - Brad Freed (B), Connor Basler (V), Andrew Basler (V). Multiple hits - Bernie: Austin Beck 2-4. Valle Catholic: C. Basler 2-5, N. Wood 2-4, Tyler Shuh 2-4, J. Roth 2-4.
