Hawks Back to State

Photos by: Joey Francisco

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Hermantown Hawks are returning to the state tournament for the 20^th

time in school history as the Hawks defeated the Pequot Lakes Patriots

Thursday afternoon at Braun Park in Cloquet by a score of 6-2.

These two teams meeting for a second time in the double elimination

tournament and it was the Patriots who struck first in the top of the first

inning as Hailey Wiebolt singled to start the first, then a walk to Barbra Miller

and the next batter Katie White singled in the first run of the game.

Following a strikeout it was Hannah Zimmerman who had an infield single as

she hit a shot up the middle, Macy Francisco made a diving stop to her right

but was unable to throw out Zimmerman at first allowing the second run to

score. The Hawks then turned the first of two double plays on the day to end

the threat for the Patriots.

Hermantown tied things up in the bottom of the second inning when Jillayne

Gilbert doubled to lead the inning off then scored when Brooke Dahlin tripled

to right field. Dahlin would later score to tie the game on a fielders choice by

Ashley Irwin.

The Hawks took the lead for good in the bottom of the third when Jordyn

Thomas scored on a single from Ashley Irwin to make it 3-2. Gilbert added an

unearned run in the fifth inning for the Hawks and in the sixth inning

Hermantown added two more runs when Kailey Mihalik and Tess Johnson

scored to make it 6-2.

The Patriots struggled to get base runners after the first inning as they were

held to only one hit over the last six innings, with the best threat coming in the

fifth inning a single by Whitney Marchwick and a walk to Wiebolt with one out,

and the threat was ended as the Patriots hit into their second double play of

the contest.

The Hawks will advance to the state tournament for a record twentieth time

and they will face state class AA runners up from a season ago, Kasson

Mantorville. Hermantown lost to the 6-1 in the state semi finals a year ago.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com