WHEATLAND – The Lady Bulldogs dropped a pair of games to conference leader Cheyenne East last Friday night 17-0 in the first and 17-0 in the second.

The Bulldog junior varsity team played their last games of the season Monday, May 8, against Cheyenne East’s JV. The Bulldogs were supposed to also play Cheyenne Central’s JV Tuesday, but the Indians had to cancel due to a lack of players.

During the first game against Cheyenne East, the Bulldogs fell behind early and could not come back in a 12-5 loss. The Bulldogs struggled to contain the high-powered offense of East as well as making contact at the plate against their strong JV pitchers.

Edyn Whitney, Tatum Struble, Cam Mickelsen, Eleni McKee and Delaney Aurich each collected one hit to lead the Bulldogs offensive appearance. Eleni McKee started the game in the circle for the Bulldogs. She allowed seven hits and 12 runs over four and a third innings, striking out seven.

Karley Adams made a brief appearance pitching the remainder of the fifth inning in relief. The second game of the day ended up in a tie with a score of 11-to-11. Wheatland JV opened up scoring in the first inning, when Struble tripled on a 2-1 count, scoring two runs. As the game progressed, the Bulldogs knotted the game up in the bottom of the fourth inning, when Lola Philo doubled on a 1-0 count, scoring two runs.

The Bulldogs tallied eight hits for the game. Struble and Philo each collected two hits to lead the Lady Bulldogs. The pitching duties for the Lady Bulldogs was shared between Struble, Aurich, McKee, and Adams. In all, the pitchers allowed 10 hits, 11 runs, five strike outs and eight base on balls.

“We were definitely sad to see the Bulldogs JV season come to an end Monday night especially since we were expecting to play another double header Tuesday,” coach Jodie Fitzwater said. “With this season's horrible weather, it became impossible in the end for us to make up a game or find an alternative opponent due to busy schedules from games being rescheduled canceled earlier on in the season.”

The Bulldog JV had an overall record of 7-2-1.

“We definitely can say the team had a successful season and that we are very proud of their development and accomplishments,” Fitzwater said. “They for sure were a fun group of ladies to watch.”

On Thursday, May 11, the Bulldog varsity team played a double header against the Cheyenne East Thunderbirds. Needless to say, it was a very long day for the Bulldogs as they fell in both games with an identical score of 17-0.

In the first game, Adams started in the circle for the Lady Bulldogs and did a great job keeping the Thunderbird offensive attack on hold by only surrendering three hits and one run in the first three and two-thirds innings.

“Though Adams did not see as much pitching time as anticipated this season due to injury, one would never have known as her performance was spot on,” Fitzwater said. “Aurich went 1-for-2 at the plate to lead the Bulldogs. Offensively the Bulldogs struggled in the first game to produce hits against East’s pitcher, Christensen. Christensen surrendered zero runs on one hit over six innings, striking out 15 and walking none.”

The second game the Bulldogs again struggled to contain the high-powered offense of the Thunderbirds as well as being productive against their pitcher.

In between the first and second games on the night, the Wheatland Bulldogs held a celebration in honor of the player’s teachers for Teacher Appreciation Night. Each player escorted a teacher that has made an impact in their life at some point for one reason or another.

“This has become an annual tradition for the Bulldogs each year and is honestly quite remarkable to see how many teachers in our community have impacted the players,” Fitzwater said. “We truly appreciate the teachers being able to take they time and attend this special event.”

The Bulldog varsity team will see their season come to an end early on next week with away games Monday, in Gillette against Thunder Basin and away games on Tuesday against Laramie.

“Typically, we do not have games this late in the season as the state tournament is also next week from May 18-20. However, due to the crazy spring weather, rescheduling games became very challenging to do, thus leaving us with these last two late dates.”