BEULAH – Beulah came to play and win. The Miners softball team beat Nedrose on Monday, May 20, and Heart River on Tuesday before adding Velva/Drake-Anamoose to the list and punch their ticket to the 2024 NDHSAA Class B Softball State Tournament which will be held May 30-June 1 at Lyle “Trapper” Lawrence Field located in Jamestown.

Velva/Drake-Anamoose also will be headed to the state softball tournament after winning the final play-in slot at the end of the day Wednesday by beating Heart River in a very tight game.

Beulah 5, Velva/Drake-Anamoose 0

Beulah took control at the bottom of the first inning and never looked back with the 5-0 win. The Miners were 8-for-23 as a team with only one error in the game.

Addie Dale-Geiger was a perfect 3-for-3 in the game. Cali Steffan was 2-for-3 and added an RBI for Beulah. Ava Seibel and Elli Weidner each added hits in the win. Dale-Geiger pitched seven innings and allowed no runs on three hits. She walked no batters and tallied ten strikeouts in the win.

Velva/Drake-Anamoose was 3-for-24 as a team with only two errors. Emma Balas, Natalie Nechiporenko and Olivia Miller each had hits in the effort. Cienna Clemens pitched three innings and allowed three runs on four hits. She also walked two batters and had four strikeouts in the game. Grace Balas pitched three innings as well. She allowed two runs on four hits with an earned run mark of one run. She walked one batter and had four strikeouts as well.

Heart River 10, Washburn/Center-Stanton 4

Washburn took a 1-0 lead at the bottom of the first inning of play and held that mark against Heart River until the top of the fourth inning. The Cougars bats came to life at the top of the fourth and five runs later, Heart River had the lead over the Cardinals for good.

The Cougars would score two more runs at the top of the fifth inning, and three more at the top of the sixth inning with the Cardinals adding one run at the bottom of the sixth and two more at the bottom of the seventh inning.

As a team, Heart River was 9-for-29 batting and had three errors in the game. Kaci Davis was 3-for-4 at the plate while Taylin Jahner was 2-for-3 batting. Aspen Jarrett, Sage Lecoe, Gretchen Silbernagel and Aubrey Roberts each added a hit in the effort. Silbernagel pitched seven innings and allowed four runs on four hits with an earned tally of two runs. She walked nine batters and had five strikeouts.

Washburn was 4-for-25 at the plate with three errors as well. Ashlyn Schmitz, Breanna Lanning, Kya Kulzer and Brooklyn Hetletved each had hits in the game. Kulzer pitched seven innings and allowed ten runs on nine hits with an earned tally of nine runs. She walked six batters and struck out ten.

Velva/Drake-Anamoose 12, Heart River 11

In a game that was tied 11-11 at the top of the sixth inning, one run at the bottom of the sixth and tough defense at the top of the seventh sent the Aggies into state play next week and sent the Cougars home.

As a team, Velva was 4-for-25 at the plate and had five errors as a team. Aggies Grace Balas, Kinley Peterson, Nechiporenko and Jenna Lohnes had the hits for Velva and added four RBIs and scored five times as a group in the win. Cienna Clemens pitched the first-third of an inning and allowed six runs on three hits with an earned run mark of five in the game. She walked two batters and struck out one.

The Balas girls pitched the rest of the game with Emma starting for four innings and allowed five runs on five hits with an earned run tally of four runs. She walked three batters and struck out four in her time. Grace then pitched two and two-third innings in relief and allowed no runs on two hits. She walked one batter and had five strikeouts to end the game.

Heart River was 10-for-32 at the plate and totaled six errors as a team. Jahner was 2-for-3 while Abby Conery and Roberts were each 2-for-4 batting. Silbernagel pitched four and one-third innings and allowed 11 runs on four hits with an earned run mark of four runs. She walked ten batters and struck out five in the effort. Jovi Henson pitched one and two-third innings and allowed one run on no hits and walked two batters as well as having two strikeouts.