LeBlanc’s Homer Sends Hawks Into Section 7AA Finals

Chris Shevich-NSO

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June 9

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

HERMANTOWN – The Hermantown Hawks outlasted the Cloquet Lumberjacks Wednesday at Fichtner Field to advance to the Section 7AA finals on Thursday at Wade Stadium with a 5-2 eighth inning victory.

Hermantown’s Brian LeBlanc hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 2-2 tie and advance his team to the section finals.

Hermantown, the host of the double elimination tourney, did a marvelous job of getting the field ready to play on Wednesday after the games were rescheduled from Tuesday because of rain. The Hermantown field crew skimmed off the wet sand and replaced it by hauling in 25-30 wheelbarrow loads of new sand in the morning before game time.

Cloquet scored first in the top o f the first inning when Tyler Tollerud walked when the bases were loaded to give Cloquet the 1-0 lead. Tollerud, who reached on a throwing error, moved to second on a single by Joey Singpiel, and then scored on two consecutive walks to August Reynolds and Adam Hanson.

The Hawks tied the game in the second inning when LeBlanc singled, stole second and came around to score on an RBI single from Jared Thomas. Cloquet made it 2-1 in the fourth inning when Corbin Morse got things started with a leadoff single and then reached second on an infield error. Morse then moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly from Kyle Becker.

Hermantown tied the game in the sixth inning with consecutive hits. First was a stand-up double to the gap by Adam Krause, which was followed by a single from Michael Stocke. Krause then scored on a RBI single from LeBlanc to tie things up at 2-2.

The game remained tied at 2-2 until the bottom of the eighth inning when Adam Krause drew the first walk and only walk of the game for the Hawks. Stocke then singled to set the stage for LeBlanc who, with his third and most important hit of the game, put the ball over the right-center field fence for a game winning 3-run walk off home run.

Stocke was the winning pitcher for Hermantown. He pitched the entire eight innings, giving up 10 hits and 2 runs (both unearned), while giving up 4 bases on balls. Thomas Rogers was the losing pitcher for the Lumberjacks. Rogers gave up 5 runs on 10 hits, while striking out 2 and walking 1.

Hermantown improves to 18-6 on the season and will play the winner of Wednesday evening’s consolation bracket on Thursday at
***2:00pm*** (PLEASE
NOTE
TIME
CHANGE)
at Wade Stadium in Duluth with a second game to follow if needed.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com