Sports from the week of May 28, 2003

Tracksters advance to sections

Girls repeat as sub-section champions

The Tracy/Milroy/Balaton girls repeated as Sub-Section 11 track champions at Redwood Valley High School Thursday. The boys were fifth out of seven teams.

The Panther girls qualified participants in every event and won 12 of 18 events. Emily Miller set a new Sub-Section 11 record in the triple jump.

"We have gone over the results and are very happy with them," said Panther Coach Steve Jones. "We qualified everyone that had a good chance to qualify."

The Section 3A track and field meet will be held Thursday at Montevideo.

The girls' team scores were: 1)TMB, 215; 2)Canby/Minneota, 118; 3)R-T-R/ Lake Benton, 94; 4)Redwood Valley, 79; 5)Lincoln H.I., 38; Lakeview, 10.

The boys team scores were: 1) Redwood Valley, 202; 2) R-T-R/Lake Benton, 96; 3) Canby/Minneota, 96; 4) Lincoln H.I., 63; 5) TMB, 59.5; 6) Lakeview, 23; 7) Ewin Learning Center, 12.

Panther nine competitive, but falls in region tourney

Tracy/Milroy/Balaton lost two of three games Saturday and Monday to be eliminated from the Section 3AA baseball tournament.

The Panthers opened play with a 6-2 loss to Jackson County Central, beat Red Rock Central/Walnut Grove-Westbrook 8-3 on Saturday before losing to Renville County West on Monday 4-3 to be eliminated.

"Our pitching was all right," said Panther Coach Bill Tauer. "We also hit the ball quite well but did not get the hits when we needed them the most and our defense let us down again."

The Panthers ended their season with a 6-16 record.

Sudden end for softball team

A heart-breaking 3-2 loss ended the Tracy/Milroy/Balaton softball season Saturday.

Luverne nipped the Panthers 3-2, ending TMB's play-off hopes. The tournament is double-elimination, but only after advancing from the opening game.

"We had plenty of opportunities," said Panther Coach Dave Sogge. "In one case the Luverne first baseman made a great play to save two runs; in four other circumstances we just couldn't come up with the big hit to put us over the top. We out-hit them 10-7; we had many more opportunities than they did, but we didn't get the hit at the right time. That makes all the difference."

Megan Anderson went all the way on the mound for TMB and only allowed 2 earned runs while striking out 9 and walking 2.

On offense Alyssa Lightfoot was 3 for 3 with a run scored, Steph Kaup had a double and a run scored and Stef Hebig was 1 for 3 with a run batted in.

The Panthers ended their season with an 11-9 record.