Cloquet Boys Notch 4-3 Come-From-Behind Win

Wes Vork-NSO

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May 10, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Cloquet Lumberjacks came from behind Thursday to defeat the Proctor Rails by a score of 4-3 in eight innings. Brandon Conklin scored the winning run as Gavin Takkunen singled him in on a 0-2 pitch to give the Lumberjacks a huge conference victory at home.

The Rails led 3-1 going into the bottom of the seventh inning only to have the Lumberjacks tie the game in the bottom of the seventh when Kaleb Kadelbach singled in Kellin Lamirande and Dylan McIvor to tie the game at 3-3 and send it to extra innings.

The Lumberjacks were down to their last strike when Kadelbach connected with a 3-2 fastball for the two run single. “With a full count I was thinking fastball and he threw one out on the edge, it might have been a ball, but at 3 and 2, I was swinging; and it was in the perfect spot to slap out into right field” an elated Kadelbach told Northland Sports Online after the game.

Proctor scored two runs in the fifth inning to take a 2-1 lead; Evan Scherber and Jake Malac scored on a single to right field from Jimmy Merling. Paul Hegstrom scored the third Proctor run in the top of the seventh inning when Scherber beat out a ball hit deep to short for an infield hit to give the Rails a 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.

Conklin, who scored the winning run in the eighth inning also scored Cloquet’s first run of the game in the second inning when McIvor singled him in after he had reached on a fielders choice to give Cloquet the 1-0 lead after two innings.

Adam Hanson was the winning pitcher for the Lumberjacks, he went the full eight innings, gave up seven hits and three runs, while walking five and striking out three Rails batters.

Cloquet Head Baseball Coach Rick Norrgard talked about his ball club’s clutch hitting to go with Hanson’s pitching. ““This was really the same kind of game as on Tuesday, (a 4-3 win at Greenway) where we got behind in a tight game, but the kids found a way to get it done.” Adding, “I think Adam gets stronger as the game goes on.”

Ben Nelson took the loss for the Rails he went seven and two-thirds strong innings also, allowed seven hits, four runs, two walks, and struck out four in the loss.

The win moves the Lumberjacks to 11-4 on the season as they win their third straight game. Cloquet will face Duluth East next Tuesday when they close out their regular season home schedule against the Greyhounds.

Proctor
falls to 7-4 on the season with the loss.
All four of the Rails losses have been one run games. “The bounces went their way today, but the bottom line is we need to figure a way to close things our when we’re ahead and win the close games.” Proctor Head Coach Kyle Wojtysiak mentioned after the game.

The Rails will host Duluth Marshal on Tuesday at home. On Thursday the Rails will face the Hermantown Hawks for the second time this season at Hermantown.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com