Stocke Pitches Hawks To 15-3 Win Over Esko

Wes Vork-NSO

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May 13

Wes Vork-NSO

Spring schedules for high school sports are always a big crammed because of a short season. Mix in the worst spring weather in recent memory causing lots of cancellations and re-scheduling of games and that schedule becomes even more crammed. The Hermantown Hawks baseball team knows this as well as any, having played seven games in the last eight days.

The Hawks have taken full advantage however, winning six of the seven games during the eight day run. It started with an 8-0 win over Greenway on May 6. That same evening they traveled to Cloquet where the Hawks suffered their only loss of the stretch to Cloquet. Since then they have won five straight and on Friday they capped the run with a 15-3 6-inning win over Esko.

Esko jumped out to a three run lead in the bottom of the first inning with Andy Hendricks, Max Reinertson, and Boyd Smith scoring. Unfortunately for the Eskomos that would be all the runs they could muster on the afternoon. In the top of the second Hermantown got one run back when Kevin Folman doubled and then scored on a Matt Lord single.

The third inning is where the wheels fell off of the wagon for the Eskomos with Hermantown scoring eight runs to blow the game open. The Hawks added another six runs in the top of the sixth. With the score at 15-3 the game ended after Hermantown shut down the Eskomos in a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth inning.

Every Hawk in the lineup scored at least one run with six different players scoring two runs. At the plate Hermantown was led by Brian LeBlanc and Lord with three hits apiece. Joe Muench turned in a three RBI effort on the day for the Hawks. Kevin Stocke pitched all six innings, picking up the win. He had four strike outs and gave up one walk.

Esko was led by Hendricks with two hits while Reinertson added a double.

Hermantown will be back at it on Tuesday when they host Two Harbors. The Eskomos will host Ashland on Monday.

Wes Vork can be reached at wes@northlandsportsonline.com