Cloquet Hosts U-18 State Softball Tournament

Wes Vork-NSO

For Additional Sat. Photos Click Here To View Our Photo Gallery

For Additional Sun. Photos Click Here To View Our Photo Gallery

July 25

Wes Vork-NSO

CLOQUET – The Minnesota U-18 Class C state softball tournament got underway at Braun Park in Cloquet on Saturday. After the first day of compitition the Cloquet SIlver Bullets
were still in mix
after splitting a pair of games. The Silver Bullets started out the tournament
getting a strong pitching performance from Rachel Smith. Smith picked up the shutout in a 3-0 win over St. Cloud Tech. In the second game the Silver Bullets fell to The South Minney Triton Cobras by a score of 8-3.

On Sunday Cloquet started out fine against
Austin, using five Austin errrors in the bottom of the third inning to put up five runs and hold a 5-0 lead. They would extend that lead to 6-1 before the wheels fell off the wagon in the top of the seventh, when Austin took a 7-6 lead and held off the Silver bullets in the bottom half of the inning for the win, sending Cloquet out of the tournament with a heartbreaking loss.

In other action the Lake Superior Pumas, a team made up of players from
Esko,Carlton, and Cloquet
lost 9-3 to International Falls in a play in game. They also lost to Mooose Lake by a score of 3-1 and to St. Cloud Tech by a 9-3 score.

Moose Lake started out the tournament with a tough loss in a tight game 1-0 to Huchinson. They rebounded with the 3-1 win over the Pumas before bowing out of the tourney with an 8-3 loss to the St. Cloud Huskers.

Check back for the complete story and tournament results