Cloquet VFW falls in second round of playoffs

The Cloquet VFW baseball team entered Sunday's playoffs with a regular season record of 6-14. Despite playing a number of younger players, the team pulled off an impressive extra-inning win on Sunday before falling in back-to-back games on Monday.

Proctor was the main host of the tournament with Cloquet as a secondary host site for the eight-team tournament that included No. 1 seed Grand Rapid, No. 2 seed Hibbing, No. 3 seed Duluth East A, West Duluth at No. 4, Cloquet at No. 5, No. 6 seed Duluth East B, Proctor at No. 7 and Hermantown at No. 8.

Cloquet opened play on Sunday at home against West Duluth, and pulled out a nifty 8-7 eight-inning victory in a game that was back-and-forth all afternoon.

"We got a nice offensive game out of Qwentin Bailey," said Cloquet coach Greg Thompson. "He went 3-for-4 in the game against West Duluth and he also scored three runs for us."

Cloquet was down by three runs and then rallied to take a one-run lead in the top of the fourth inning. In the sixth inning Cloquet added two more runs, but West Duluth pulled back with a three-run rally of their own in the seventh inning to tie the game. The eighth inning saw Cloquet pick up two runs to take a lead of 8-6, but in the bottom of the inning West Duluth rallied back for a run before Cloquet got the final out on a fly ball to left field to end the game on a catch by Sean Sarkela.

Zack Tyman was the winning pitcher in the game for Cloquet.

"Even though they were seeded higher than us we got to play on our own field because we were the secondary host for the event and that was really nice for our kids," Thompson said. "It's so nice to play in front of your home crowd and the kids really enjoyed that."

Game Two action saw Cloquet hang tough with No. 1 seeded Grand Rapids before falling 5-1, also at home.

"We had a very good defensive game and got down 2-0, but punched in a run to get within 2-1 in the fifth inning and that made it interesting," Thompson said. "Rapids then bounced back with three runs to pull out the win against us and we couldn't muster up anything to punch any more runs across."

The game was a tough defensive battle as both teams made solid plays in the field, but the strong effort Cloquet put forth against the top-seeded Grand Rapids team came back to haunt them in their last game of the day when they dropped an 11-1 decision to third seeded Duluth East A.

"The boys were absolutely exhausted entering that final game," Thompson said. "Their heads weren't in the game against East A. I think they were just worn out after that Grand Rapids game."

The good news, however, is that the summer was one of learning the game and technique and Coach Thompson was able to watch his team pick up seven wins - which is five more than they managed a season ago.

"We shared most of our kids with the Cloquet Legion team and with other sports all summer long," Thompson said. "It is tough for kids to be able to be at everything, so you do your best when you do get them, in making it work as far as numbers go."

Upcoming juniors Zach Tyman, Joe Baker, Carson Psyck and Grant Werhan were all older players who managed to be at most of the events this summer long, with youngsters Marshall Hayes and Alex Yrjanson also having solid summers, according to Thompson.

"We had a good bunch of kids this summer," said Thompson. "They worked hard, they gave what they had, and I hope they learned a little about the game this summer."