Proctor Boys Come Up Just Short In Opening of Hibbing Tourney

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May 19, 2012

By Max Mercy

HIBBING -Thief River Falls/Goodridge defeated Proctor 5-4 on Friday in the opening game of the Hibbing “Wood Bat” Tournament.

Winning pitcher Nick Hoffard (4-0, 3.61 ERA) allowed three earned runs on seven hits and one walk in four innings. He had six strikeouts. Riley Soderstrom pitched three scoreless innings of relief for the save.

TRF/G scored three runs on two hits and three Proctor errors in the first inning. The Prowlers added two runs in the third inning on two hits, a walk, and a hit batsman to take a 5-0 lead.

Proctor scored a run in the top of the fourth when Ben Nelson scored on a Jake Lewis sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 5-1.

The Rails had five consecutive hits to start the fifth inning, including a three-run home run by Ryan McCarthy, his fourth home run of the season.

Proctor had the bases loaded with no outs in the sixth inning, but TRF/G turned a pitcher-to-catcher-to-first baseman double play on a hard ground ball off the bat of Jesse Scanlon, and got Ben Nelson to ground out after intentionally walking McCarthy, his third intentional walk in the past two games, to eliminate the threat.

Losing pitcher Jack Nikko (1-1, 2.80 ERA) worked all six innings allowing two earned runs on seven hits, a walk, and a hit batsman. He had two strikeouts.

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