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N.D.  (NewsDakota.com)  The Jamestown Blue Jay Softball team opened up the West Region Softball Tourney on Thursday afternoon with a matchup against the Bismarck Century Patriots at Trapper Field.  The Patriots (20-11) defeated the Jays 8-1 and will move into the semifinal on Friday afternoon at 5pm, Jamestown drops to 16-18 overall and will play at 1pm Friday afternoon.

The game was scoreless through four and two-thirds innings, but that all changed with one swing of the bat when Eighth grader and starting pitcher Madison Zander hit a 3-run homerun to left field scoring Grace Meschke and Kelsey Mischel.  Bismarck added five more runs in the sixth inning.  Zander was the winning pitcher, going the distance allowing one run, five hits, four strikeouts and no walks.  Freshman Alex Nihill took the loss, working five and a third, nine hits, five runs, three earned and one homerun.  Eighth grader Payton Gall worked two-thirds of an inning, allowed three runs, zero earned.

Senior Mariah Wick had a nice afternoon at the plate for Blue Jays, going 3-for-4 with a double, a single and scored a run.  Junior Olivia Nihill and Senior Joey Kleinsasser had one hit each.  Zander at the plate for the Patriots was 2-for-4 with a 3-run homerun, a single and three RBI.  Freshman Kelsey Mischel was 3-for-3, all singles and scored two runs.

Pregame will start about 12:50pm on AM 1400 KQDJ/97.1 FM and newsdakota.com, first pitch about 1pm on Friday afternoon.

Jamestown 1/5/8/7

Bismarck 8/9/5/6