Cloquet & ML-WR Fall To Fargo Shanley

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May 20, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

Last season when Fargo Shanley made the trip across the state of Minnesota to play high school baseball games against local area teams, it was the weather that affected the outcome limiting the Deacons to only one game. This time around, the wood bat Deacons came to the Twin Ports and will leave the area with a 3-1 record on this road trip.

The 3-1 record for the Deacons includes a victory over Northwestern on Friday afternoon and a loss to Hayward on Friday night with both games played at Wade Stadium. The Deacons beat Northwestern by a score of 1-0 then fell to Hayward by a 4-3 margin. Saturday however, the Deacons responded by defeating the Cloquet Lumberjacks in the morning at Cloquet by a score of 4-0 and then it was a 4-1 win over Moose Lake-Willow River on Saturday afternoon.

The Deacons held Cloquet to only three hits on the day as the Deacons jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back as they went on to the 4-0 win. Four hits and a walk helped with the Deacons in a three run first inning. They added another run in the top of the sixth inning by scoring their fourth run of the game on a throwing error to home plate, which allowed Jon Nygaard to come across and score.

The Lumberjacks struggled all day long to get their bats going, as they finished with only three hits Saturday, but did have several chances to get back into the game. In the bottom of the first inning Derek Anderson and Kaleb Kadelbach walked to start the first, but both runners were left stranded as Cloquet was unable to move the runners up. The stranded runner issue continued for Cloquet all game long; they left six runners on in the first four innings.

Trent Moe had two of Cloquet’s three hits Saturday, including a double in the sixth inning. Eric Peterson had Cloquet’s other hit, a single in the bottom of the fourth inning. Nygaard led the Deacons as he went 2-3 with a double and a run batted in. Trent Moe was also 2-3 with a double for the Lumberjacks. Joe Hallock struck out 10 batters as he picked up the win for Shanley. Brandon Conklin took the loss for the Lumberjacks.

Following the victory over Cloquet, Shanley then traveled to Moose Lake to take on the Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels in an afternoon match up. Once again it was the Deacons coming away with the victory as they knocked off the Rebels by a score of 4-1. The Rebels got on the scoreboard first Saturday afternoon as they picked up a run in the bottom of the third inning to lead 1-0.

Shanley responded in the top of the fifth inning as they scored three runs to take a 3-1 lead after five innings. Shanley added one more run in the top of the seventh inning as they pick up the three run victory. The Deacons were assisted by five Rebel errors on the afternoon as the Rebels out-hit the Deacons by a six to five margin.

John Nygaard again led the Deacon as he went 3-4 with three runs batted in as Shanley picked up their third win of the road trip. Nick Salentine was the winning pitcher for Fargo Shanley and it was Spencer Clough taking the loss for the Rebels.

The Cloquet Lumberjacks fall to 12-5 on the season and they will play at Esko on Tuesday afternoon. Moose Lake-Willow River falls to 6-8 on the season and they will host Barnum on Tuesday in their last home game of the season.

Fargo Shanley moves to 16-10 overall on the season and they will start North Dakota east region playoffs on Thursday at Fargo South.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com