By Dee Grenert Sports Editor
LAKEVILLE — Bremen senior pitcher Jenni Andrews walked off the field, unaware of the goose egg in the hit column of her final pitching line.
However, her unconventional no-hitter — coupled with seven Jimtown errors — powered the Lions past No. 3 Jimtown, 3-1, in Class 2A Sectional 35 first-round action at Newton Park Tuesday.
“I had no idea, I really didn’t,” Andrews, who added two hits and an RBI, said of her feat. “My brother told me after the game that there was an announcement on the loud speaker that I’d pitched a no-hitter. I said, ‘You’re serious?’ I thought he was joking.”

No joking, but considering her control issues during the opening two frames against the two-time defending sectional champions, the surprise was understandable.
Andrews walked five batters in the first two innings, including three in a rocky opening frame. She compounded her first-inning wildness with a booted grounder back to the pitcher’s circle and a two-out bases-loaded wild pitch that produced Jimtown’s sole run — an unearned tally — and gave the Jimmies, who beat Bremen 6-0 last week for the Northern State Conference crown, a 1-0 edge.
She followed a shaky second with five straight perfect innings and looked like a completely different pitcher. Other than third baseman Casey Hueni’s slick stab of a tough grounder to end the fifth, Andrews mowed down the Jimmies with a mix of strikeouts and routine plays. She finished the game with seven punchouts.
“I just took a deep breath and told myself that it’s going to be OK,” Andrews said of her impressive recovery. “It’s my senior year and I’m going to go all out.”
The no-hitter caught Bremen head coach Chris English off guard, too.
“Unbelievable,” she said. “There were so many runners in the first two innings that I wasn’t even thinking about a no-hitter. She pitched real well the first time we played them.”
English also said she never thought about going to the bench during those rough opening innings.
“We don’t have anybody else,” English said. “We’ve been riding her all year. Taking her out wasn’t even an option. Jenni’s a funny girl. I don’t know how she found her command. If I knew that, she wouldn’t have been wild in the first place.”
Bremen also benefited from senior catcher Jenny Fraine’s throwing arm. Although Andrews walked the first two batters in the second, Fraine gunned down a pair of runners trying to steal second in the inning — both times with accurate throws to shortstop Courtney Bahr.
“They ran all over us at Jimtown last week,” English said. “I think they had six stolen bases. We challenged Jenny this week. We told her they don’t respect her and they’re going to run on her. She was able to throw out a couple runners.”
Bremen scored the first of its three runs — all unearned — in the bottom of the second off Jimtown’s Kala Troyer. In fact, the Lions plated their first two runs without the benefit of a hit.
Nicole Seitz reached on a one-out error and scored on another error to knot the game at 1-1 in the second.
Bremen center fielder Amanda LaFree struck out swinging to open the fourth, but reached on a wild pitch and moved up on Jessie Creakbaum’s sacrifice bunt. Seitz then sent a sinking liner to second that Jimtown’s Taylor Crowell bobbled and then threw wide of first, allowing LaFree to scoot home for a 2-1 Bremen lead.
“When you make six or seven errors you’re going to get beat,” Jimtown head coach Brent Culp said. “I don’t know if we’ve had that many errors in a game all year. That’s crazy, but you’ll have games like that.”
Bremen tacked on an insurance run in the fifth, without hitting the ball out of the infield. Nine-hole hitter Renee Zeltwanger bunted down the third base line for a leadoff hit. Hueni laid down a sacrifice bunt and reached on an error that allowed Zeltwanger to motor into third. Andrews, a left-handed slapper, chopped an RBI single to the left side of the infield to plate Zeltwanger for a 3-1 advantage.
“The game last week was great,” Culp said. “We won 6-0, but I’d much rather win this game and have a chance at a sectional championship than to win a conference championship. I’ve got two girls who’ll never put on a Jimtown jersey again.
“To play this bad is disappointing,” he added. “Offensively, we weren’t doing anything. (Bremen assistant coach) Stan (Hueni) and Chris do a great job.”
Bremen faces No. 10 Fairfield Thursday at Newton Park at 7 p.m. LaVille and Westview meet in the opener at 5 p.m.
• BREMEN 3,
  JIMTOWN 1
Class 2A Sectional 35
At Lakeville
Jimtown: 1 0 0   0 0 0   0 — 1  0  7
Bremen:  0 1 0   1 1 0   x — 3  4  1
Kala Troyer (L, 12-3) and Tiffany Weesner; Jenni Andrews (W) and Jenny Fraine.
2B: Nicole Seitz (B).
Record: Jimtown 22-5.