Playoff Roundup: Cloquet VFW rallies early, loses next two

After a miracle comeback in the opening round, the Cloquet VFW boys baseball team was knocked out of the playoffs with losses to Hermantown and Hibbing last weekend.

Cloquet trailed 9-0 after two innings in their opening game with West Duluth Thursday and things looked bleak. Coach Nate Knutson decided to make a couple of changes and the squad responded — coming from behind to edge West Duluth 11-10.

“It was a great way to start the tournament,” said Knutson. “We cut the lead in half in the fourth, tied it in the fifth and then got the lead in the sixth and held on to win in the seventh.”

The win pushed Cloquet into a Saturday game against Hermantown, but the team found itself with only eight players in a 4-1 loss.

Knutson was not at the game because he was busy running the Northland Classic tournament and assistant Steve Battaglia had to battle a man short, which meant an automatic out every time that spot came up in the lineup.

“The guys still played well and had a chance to win, but we had to give up too many outs,” Knutson said.

On Sunday, the season ended for Cloquet in an 11-4 loss to Ely. The squad finished with a 6-14 record.

“It felt like we played a lot more than 20 games,” Knutson said. “We had to work around a lot of things and schedules, but in the end the guys got a lot of repetitions, and hopefully that will help down the line.”