Megan Jarret hits three bombs, not enough for a win Thursday

Apr. 17—JAMESTOWN — The bottom of the seventh got Bismarck High a little bit nervous.

"What we've kind of preached to them is that we need to have a short memory on a lot of things whether that be a play in the field or an at-bat or an inning," JHS head softball coach Mike Soulis said. "To their credit, they do that. You only do what you have in front of you. We had the seventh inning in front of us.

"We're young," he said. "We have a lot of inexperience yet and we're trying to build on that and I think that seventh inning kind of showed some of that."

Despite the Jays' three-run seventh inning, the Blue Jays fell 10-6, 18-9 to Bismarck High on Thursday evening. The Jays are now 4-4 in the WDA conference.

The schedule doesn't get any easier for the Jays. Soulis and his crew are set to take on Dickinson on April 22. First pitch is scheduled to be delivered at 4:30 p.m. at Trapper Field. Dickinson is sitting at 4-2 in the West Region and 6-2 overall.

Bismarck's hot hitting streak started right away in the first with a two-run bomb from Josie Schell. Bismarck's lead grew to 7-0 after a big-time performance in the top of the third. Jamestown recorded four errors in game No. 1.

"They got the jump start on us and we were a little flat," Soulis said simply. "It helped that Megan (Jarret) hit a home run to kind of get us into it again but we just kind of struggled getting ahead in the counts. ... We kind of fed into their strengths. Usually you can try and get ahead in some ways and we just weren't able to do that today and they took advantage of that."

Jarret's homer came in the bottom of the third. The freshman drove in Brooke Jackson to make it a 7-2 ball game headed into the fourth.

"She's coming along as we expected," Soulis said of Jarret. "In the preseason we saw some good things. She's overcome a lack of confidence — when you hit a couple home runs the confidence comes back pretty quick — She's been a good addition for us."

A 6-4 line drive double play ended the Demons' chances at the plate in the fourth, but the home team was unable to capitalize and the score still stood at 7-2 entering the fifth.

Jamestown's third run of the day came by way of a RBI double from Sophia Bond in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-3 but Bismarck got hot in the sixth and produced three more runs to stretch its lead to seven.

Bismarck did not score again — but Jamestown did.

With one out and bases loaded, Rilie Wolf singled on a hard-hit grounder to left field sending Jarret home. The Jays produced two more hits to score two more runs before a pop-out to Cameron Braun ended game No. 1.

"We just had the attitude," Soulis said. "I don't know that we thought we would make up seven runs but we wanted to set the tone for the second game. We just said, go put the ball in play and we'll see what happens. If we come back, great but if we don't we'll be ready for the second game. We set the tone and we got some momentum."

Bismarck High 10, Jamestown 6

BHS 205 003 0 — 10 13 1

JHS 002 010 3 — 6 14 5

BHS — Mya Jones. JHS — Maddie Hoff. W — Jones; L — Hoff.

Highlights: JHS — Hoff (7 IP, 13 H, 10 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 7 K), 3-4, RBI, 2B; Brooke Jackson 2-5; Megan Jarret 2-4, 2 RBI, HR; Avery Graves 3-4; Sophia Bond 1-4, 2B, RBI; Rilie Wolf 1-4, RBI; Jaelyn Sloan 1-2, RBI.

BHS — Josie Schell 4-5, 4 RBI, 2B, HR; Kate Nowatski 2-3, 2 RBI; Maggie Ness 2-4, RBI; Gianna Peluso 1-4, RBI.

Bismarck High 18, Jamestown 9

BHS 341 044 2 — 18 17 6

JHS 100 404 0 — 9 13 5

BHS — Josie Schell. JHS — Jaelyn Sloan; Avery Graves (6). W — Schell; L — Sloan.

Highlights: JHS — Sloan (5.2 IP, 16 H, 16 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 16 K), 3-4; Brooke Jackson 2-4; Maddie Hoff 1-3, RBI, 2B; Sophia Bond 1-4, 2B; Megan Jarret 3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Marissa Moltzen 2 RBI; Avery Graves 3-4, RBI.

BHS — Mya Jones 2-4, RBI, 2B; Josie Schell 4-6, 5 RBI, 2B; Isabella Owens 3-5, 3 RBI, 2B; Laila Nehls 2-5, 2B; Bailey Kautzman 4-5, 2 RBI, 3B.