Cloquet set for playoffs

The Cloquet VFW baseball team finished its regular season Tuesday with a disappointing loss to Proctor, but second-year coach Greg Thompson said the young team has continued to improve.

"We wanted to improve from last season and we did just that - finishing the regular season with a 6-14 record," Thompson said.

The team split a doubleheader with West Duluth Monday. Joe Baker pitched the team to an 11-7 win in the first game, but the Cloquet team dropped the second game by a score of 7-3.

Numbers were a challenge this year.

"We had to pull up three eighth-graders this year to fill out our complete roster, but these kids have performed very well and it gives them a taste of varsity and junior varsity baseball they can expect next spring," Thompson said.

He noted that Zack Tyman, Joe Baker, Carson Psyck, along with Quinten Bailey and Marshall Hayes, were all very consistent this season.

"We want the kids to get better each and every game, but we also want to have fun out there and make it enjoyable," he said.

Cloquet will be the secondary host site for the VFW district tournament that begins Sunday and runs through July 31. The eight teams within the district include West Duluth, Hibbing, Hermantown, Grand Rapids, two teams from East Duluth, along with Cloquet and Proctor, the main host of the district tournament.

Several teams that used to play in the district have changed from VFW baseball to Junior Legion Baseball, which reduced the number of teams within the district, and eliminated the need to hold sub-district tournaments.

Cloquet did not know its seeding as the Pine Knot News went to press.

"We will just go play hard and see what happens," Thompson said.