Rodd’s Ramblings – Can History Repeat Itself

May 27, 2012

Kerry Rodd-NSO

It has happened only one time in school history. Ten years ago this year the only team in Cloquet High School history played its way into the Minnesota State High School girls softball tournament. Led by all-everything pitcher, Brooke Tondryk, the Lumberjacks used a team laden with seniors to advance and finish as the Class AAA State Consolation Champions under the direction of head coach Brenda Bender.

Fast forward to 2012 and the Lumberjacks could be knocking at the door for their second straight tournament berth by beating the favored Hermantown Hawks (see game story), by beating Hermantown 2-1 in Cohasset.

Now back to 2002:

While the 2002 squad was the only team to advance to state, the program had been building toward that effort for a 3-year span, only to be eliminated each season late in the playoffs. The most heart breaking of those losses was a 2001 loss to Duluth Central at Cloquet High School field when the Jacks stung the ball hard only to have the Trojans run the ball down in the outfield.

Enter 2002. The Jacks had a strong nucleus of talent returning including Tondryk, but there were also some question marks. Returning were starters; Chelsey Rodd, Ann Malkovich, Tondryk, Chelsea Randall, Tiffany Anderson and Steph Sarazin. Rodd and Malkovich were the first and third basemen respectively, Randall was returning at second, Sarazin was back in the outfield and Tondryk was expected to carry the pitching load.

The question marks for the team were at shortstop where the Jacks lost Liz ‘Bug’ Plante, who took her game to Concordia St. Paul and in a couple of outfield positions as well as depth in the pitching department.

Bender, and assistant coaches Jana Ferguson and Ron Tondryk, were fortunate in the fact that they had a strong group of underclassmen who appeared ready to step in and play. She found a pair of sophomores and a couple of freshman who made instant impacts on the team. The sophomores were; Katie Rodd and Aubrey Thill. Rodd stepped in to fill the void at shortstop and Thill became the right fielder, leadoff hitter and backup catcher. Left field was patrolled by a combination of Sarah Tondryk and Sam Battaglia, both freshmen.

Backing up Brooke Tondryk on the mound were; Sarah Tondryk, hard-throwing Liz Johnson and Jennika Soyring, who were both juniors. The Jacks also had a number of players who were capable of hitting, running the bases and giving the coaching staff options in special situations.

The Cloquet program had a lot of depth over about a seven-year span as many of the players were deeply involved in summer softball. Cloquet teams had advanced and won the state tournament three times in the youth leagues and had a number of runner-up finishes. The problem wasn’t numbers; it was trying to figure out how to possibly keep as many talented players on the rosters as possible.

Many of the team’s questions were answered quickly in the Jacks first double header that season. Playing on the road the Jacks opened with a double header against a couple of teams from the North Branch area. Tondryk dominated and the Jacks defense played flawless. Malkovich, Katie Rodd, Randall and Chelsey Rodd were tight in the infield. The outfield, anchored by Sarazin in center, was speedy and ran down everything giving fans a glimpse of a very good team.

Offensively the Jacks lineup was littered with an important mixture of power, speed and contact hitters. They also had depth on the bench that would play an important role in the sectional playoffs.

Another interesting side note to the season was the fact that Cloquet was playing as the smallest school in Class AAA in the state that season. Virginia, led by Lindsey Predovich, was dropped to Class AA and would end up facing Hermantown that season in the Section 7AA finals with the Hawks prevailing. In order to make the state tournament the Jacks would need to face the likes of; Duluth East, Duluth Central, Elk River, Cambridge-Isanti, and Grand Rapids.

After knocking off Central and East the Jacks advanced to the Section 7AAA final four held in Cambridge. The Jacks opened up the double-elimination tournament with a thrilling come-from-behind win over the host Blue Jackets. With Cloquet trailing and runners on base, the Lumberjacks rallied for the win.

Game #2 saw the Jacks win in similar fashion over Elk River. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning Cloquet got a base hit from Liz Johnson to score the tying run. Then, in the bottom of the eighth with two outs, Brooke Tondryk dumped a base hit to left-centerfield. Tiffany Anderson followed Tondryk with a shot over the head of the left fielder for a triple allowing the winning run, Tondryk, to score, and send the Jacks to the championship round.

Following the two wins the Jacks faced Grand Rapids as the lone undefeated team. Grand Rapids had been beaten the previous day by Cambridge and had to play an elimination game with Elk River. Behind Jenny Doyle’s pitching, the Thunderhawks beat the Elks and would move into the championship round to play the Lumberjacks. Because of it being a double-elimination tournament the Thunderhawks had to beat Cloquet twice in order to advance to the state tournament.

The championship game opened in sweltering heat with high humidity and Cloquet going down in the first inning without a run. The Thunderhawks opened with a base hit and a bunt for a single that put runners on first and second with nobody out. The early momentum was definitely on the side of Grand Rapids. Cloquet caught a pair of breaks when Kendra Halling grounded to the Jacks shortstop Katie Rodd who threw to Malkovich at third for a force out. Then Amanda Young, the Thunderhawks cleanup hitter, ripped a sinking line drive that appeared headed to left field for a hit. Katie Rodd dove for the ball and managed to knock the ball down, but the ball skittered towards the left field line. The runner on second had to hold up for a moment to make sure the ball was not caught and that allowed Rodd just enough time to scramble to the ball and nip the runner at third for another force out. Brooke Tondryk then followed with a strikeout to get Cloquet out of the early jam.

The top of the third inning saw the Lumberjacks bats come to life. Katie Rodd led off with a double to left-centerfield and that seemed to ignite the Jacks. Aubrey Thill followed with a bunt hit and the Jacks suddenly had something brewing with runners on first and third and nobody out. Thill’s hit was followed by an infield hit by Chelsea Randall and a base hit by Brooke Tondryk. After Tiffany Anderson, who had three hits in the game, reached on an error it was Chelsey Rodd launching a triple to right field to clear the bases. Needless to say that was all Brooke Tondryk needed as she slammed the door by striking out nine and allowing just a couple of hits in pitching the Jacks to the win.

At the state tournament the Jacks lost the opening game to Park of Cottage Grove and then came back to win a 1-0 game over Brainerd on a run by Steph Sarazin and then they defeated White Bear Lake the following day to bring home the consolation championship.

After taking the win over Hermantown on Friday, the 2012 version of the Jacks have a chance to reclaim their place in state history.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com