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A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Cloquet sophomore Cade Anderson pitches in Tuesday's home game against Esko. Anderson pitched six innings and to take the win for the Lumberjacks. It was a close game throughout but Cloquet won 7-5 in the end. Pitching is more important than ever for the Lumberjacks as they head into playoffs, because star senior pitcher Jon Baker injured his elbow and is likely out for the season. Photos by Jack Slater / Pine Knot Sports
Senior Mason Vinje pitches against the Lumberjacks at Mettner Field Tuesday. Vinje pitched five innings for the Eskomos in the loss.
Cloquet junior Jake Huhta goes for a double play at second base after a forced out for Esko's Jaustin Piepho. Huhta also had two hits in Tuesday's game.
A late rally by Cloquet helped propel the Lumberjack baseball team to a 7-5 win over next-door neighbor Esko at Ed Mettner field in Cloquet Tuesday evening. The 'Jacks trailed 4-2 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, but plated five runs to take a 7-4 lead and then hung on in the seventh inning for the win.
"That was nice to see because we have been struggling to score runs at times," said Cloquet coach Rick Norrgard. "We have left a lot of runners on base. It does seem that when we score runs, we score them in bunches, but we don't do that often enough."
That feast-or-famine situation became an issue for Cloquet as they left runners on base a number of times early in the game before finally taking the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning.
"It was a fun game that was full of rallies," said Esko coach Ben Haugen. "It's always fun to play Cloquet because the boys know each other so well. Rick (Norrgard) does a great at
Cloquet."
Sophomore Cade Anderson notched the pitching win for the 'Jacks by going six innings and allowing two earned runs. Senior Nick Baker took a break from catching to pitch one inning, giving up one earned run. Senior Mason Vinje pitched five innings for the Eskomos while junior James LeGarde also chipped in on the mound for Esko.
The Eskomos gained a 2-0 lead in the third inning with a pair of runs. Cloquet tied things up with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth, but the Eskomos tacked on two more runs in the top of the sixth inning to go up 4-2 before Cloquet exploded for five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs.
"That was a tough inning because we hit three batters, then made an error on an attempted steal that would have ended the inning," recalled Haugen. "Then things began to snowball on us. I made the decision to walk (Nick) Baker to lead the bases to face (Noah) Niemi and we had two strikes on him and ended up hitting him on a curve ball."
Jaustin Piepho collected three of Esko's 10 hits. Tyler Koskela added two hits for the Eskomos, who outhit Cloquet 10-9 for the game. Gavin Rasmussen, Zach Tyman and Jake Huhta had two hits each to lead Cloquet's offense. Rasmussen's hits were both doubles and Huhta had two RBIs.
Cloquet played without their star pitcher, senior Jon Baker, who injured his elbow pitching last week. According to his parents, they will know more after an MRI later this week, but he may need to have surgery. Baker has a scholarship to play college baseball for the South Dakota State Jackrabbits.
The loss drops Esko to 12-5 overall this season, and the win improves Cloquet's record to 7-10.
