Lady Jacks Season Ends

Photos by: Shelley Robideaux

Dwight Cadwell – NSO

The Cloquet Lumberjacks needed to play three perfect games to advance to the section 7AA finals on Thursday and for most of the day it seemed liked the Jacks were heading for the section finals versus Hermantown but for the second time in less then a week it was the Pequot Lakes Patriots coming from behind to knock off Cloquet and end the Lumberjacks season.

The Lumberjacks opened play in the double elimination tournament Tuesday with a losers round contest against the Esko Eskomos and it was the Lumberjacks coming away with a 6-3 win. It was a 3 run 5th inning and a 2 run sixth that sealed the victory, as the Eskomos staged a late rally but Chandler Beaupre ended the rally striking out the last batter she faced for the 3 run win.

Katrina Smith had three hits in the Jacks win including a double and 2 RBI’s. Mikayla Langenbrunner scored three runs in the victory, and Beaupre struck out 10 Eskomos in the winning effort. Kayla Garson and Morgan Pera added two hits in the loss for the Eskomos and Pera also drove in two in the loss. Esko stranded 10 base runners on the loss.

The Lumberjacks then went on to face the Virginia Blue Devils who beat International Falls 13-12 on a three run walk off home run by Hailey Greenwalt. Following that emotional win over the Broncos the Blue Devils struggled to get their bats going again as the Jacks picked up the 10-1 win.  Jade Benko provided 3 hits including a double and she scored two runs in the win. Cloquet pounded out 10 hits in the win Sammy Zeadow and Kristi Anderson each scored 2 runs for Cloquet.

The win over Virginia and it set up a rematch against the Patriots who beat Cloquet 8-6 in Cohasset. The Patriots struck first Tuesday as they took a 2-0 lead after the first inning and it took Cloquet till the third inning before Breanne Baker scored on a RBI single from Sammy Zeadow to cut the lead to 2-1. Cloquet rallied again in the top of the fifth inning when Benko walked with one out and it was Kassidy Steen crushing a two run home run into a stiff east wind to give the Jacks a 3-2 lead.

Like it was a week ago the Patriots again rallied from behind to take the lead as back to back doubles from Katie White and Kayla Miller tied the score at 3-3, then a single to right field by Hannah Zimmerman scored Miller with what would be the game winning run. Cloquet would put runners on base in the top of the seventh inning and one out, but they were unable to get the hit to bring in the tying run as the patriots will face Hermantown in the section championship game Thursday at 4 pm at Braun Park.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com