Baseball teams wrap up season

The summer baseball season came to a close over the weekend as Esko fell in the championship game of the Junior Legion baseball tournament and Cloquet dropped its first two games in the VFW tournament over the

weekend.

Esko wins way to finals

Esko opened play Tuesday, July 27, in Ely with a 6-3 victory over Taconite. Leading the offensive charge for Esko were Sam Haugen and Ty Christensen, who had three and two hits respectively.

"Those two guys carried our offense," said Esko coach Jordan Balow. "The pair also added a total of four runs batted in for us."

On the mound Esko relied on Cale Haugen, Trent Ondrus and Dylan Marciuliounis to shut down Taconite.

Three days later, Esko faced a solid Virginia team, losing 8-7, and dropped down into the loser's bracket.

"That was a heartbreaking loss," Balow said of the Friday game. "We trailed and got off to a poor start, but fought back and then they scored a run in the top of the seventh and that was it."

Immediately after losing to Virginia, Esko had to turn around and play Cook County in an elimination game in the double-elimination tournament. Down 5-3 after five innings, Esko came back to notch the win. Christensen had a big game with three hits and three RBIs. A.J. Kazel chipped in with a solid game by knocking out two hits, both doubles, and scoring two runs. A big key was the ability of Tyler Salmela to throw five innings.

"It was huge on Friday for Tyler to eat up some innings in that loser's bracket game," Balow said. "When you are in the loser's bracket you need pitchers to step up and he did just that."

The win late on Friday resulted in Esko having to come back and play possibly two more games on Saturday. Esko took the first game 14-13 in 10-innings over Cherry followed by an impressive 11-1 win over Virginia.

"I am so proud of the way the guys responded on Saturday," Balow said. "In the first game win over Cherry we just had no life and got down 8-2 after 2 ½ innings, but somehow fought back and scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game."

Cherry reacted to the Esko push by taking a two-run lead in the top of the 10th inning to go ahead 13-11. Things looked extremely bleak when Cherry had runners on first and third with no outs and already two runs in when a mini-miracle happened and Esko turned a triple play to keep the game close and get out of the inning.

"They hit a line drive to second base to Joey Antonutti, who caught it and doubled off the runner who was on first base and then they sent the runner home from third who had tagged up and AJ Kazel threw home to Marciuliounis who tagged that runner out for the triple play," Balow said.

The triple play ignited Esko's offense in the bottom of the inning as Antonutti was hit by a pitch with one out and then Finn Furcht and Marciuliounis walked to load the bases. Cal Berglund followed with a line drive single to left to score Antonutti and the rally was capped when Owen Wilson grounded a single to left scoring both Furcht and Marciulounis for the final of 14-13.

The second game Saturday was a cakewalk for Esko as they ripped Virginia 11-1 to avenge their earlier loss in the tournament.

"We got a great pitching performance from Marciuliounis who pitched the whole game for us," Balow said. "I think the guys fed off the good pitching and we got a great offensive performance from the whole team."

Esko swatted out 15 hits. Cal Berglund and Isaak Sertich both had three hits, while Antonutti, Kazel, Marciulounis and Furcht all had two.

The two wins on Saturday meant Esko would get an opportunity to play Proctor in the finals Sunday. It also meant Esko needed to beat Proctor twice, as Proctor was the lone undefeated team left in the tournament.

It didn't happen. Despite having a fair amount of pitching left, Esko lost 6-4.

"It was a back-and-forth game and we just couldn't get it done," Balow said. "Proctor is a good ball club and we had our chances."

For the season Esko finished with an 18-9-1 record.

"I'm proud of the fight we showed and a lot of guys stepped up for us," said Balow. "Proctor did just a little bit better throwing strikes in the championship game."

As for what the future may hold for Esko come spring when the high school season comes around?

"This is a really good core group of kids and it will be a nice group for the high school program to build around," Balow said. "It's an exciting time for Esko baseball."

Cloquet battles to the end

While Esko elected to play in Junior Legion a few years ago, the Cloquet summer program continues to play in the VFW Division. Both Junior Legion and VFW are the same age groups, normally ages 15-16, but they are just administered by different entities.

On Saturday Cloquet opened play in the VFW tournament with an 8-2 loss to the West Duluth White Caps.

"We scored two in the top of the first and it looked good for us," said Cloquet coach Rick Sievert. "We had that good start and then things fizzled out for us at the plate and then they got a 3-2 lead on us and then put up five in the fifth to pretty much end it."

Matt Erickson took the mound for Cloquet and pitched well through four innings, but a couple of walks in the fifth and some timely hits proved to be enough for West Duluth. Aidan Severt had the lone RBIs for Cloquet and Erickson belted out three hits to try and aid his own cause.

The loss pushed Cloquet into an elimination game on Sunday against Hermantown and the two rivals hooked up in a dramatic game.

"It was just a great game," coach Sievert said. "There were a lot of ups and downs throughout the game."

The ups started for Cloquet right out of the gate when they scored four runs in the opening inning. Cloquet led 6-1 in the bottom of the fifth when Hermantown answered with four runs to cut the lead to 6-5.

Cloquet held a 9-5 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh, but Hermantown answered with five runs and walked off the game with a game-winning base hit to take the win.

"It was just a good game and we had our chances," coach Sievert said. "They got the walk-off hit on a blooper to score a runner from third. Our kids fought hard, but it was not meant to be."

Aidan Sievert pitched well early in the game for Cloquet and gave up just one run through five innings. In almost a repeat of what happened in their opening game, some walks in the fifth followed by some timely hits by Hermantown started a slide that Cloquet was unable to stop.

Jaedyn Novy and Alex Omenge had a couple of RBIs to lead the Cloquet offense.

"It was tough at the end of that game because it was almost the same formula as our opening game," said Sievert.

A summer of baseball will do nothing but help the high school program next spring in Cloquet, he said.

"I told the boys we led in 10 of the 14 innings we played in the tournament and overall they learned what it takes to play at a higher level," Sievert said. "Instead of sitting at home on the couch, they were out here playing and getting better. It is especially good for the pitchers who learned they have to keep the walks down and any time they were on the field they were learning to get better by playing in games."