Cloquet Girls One Win Away From State Birth

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May 29, 2012

Kerry Rodd-NSO

CLOQUET – One game. One game is all that separates the Cloquet softball team from its first state tournament berth since 2002. The Lumberjacks, who last week upset perennial champion Hermantown, knocked off Proctor and Hibbing on Tuesday afternoon to remain the lone unbeaten team in the Section 7AA softball playoffs.

GAME 1: Cloquet 11 Proctor 8

The Jacks started the day exactly how Cloquet Head Softball Coach Ron Tondryk wanted them to, and that was by scoring runs in the top of the first inning and shutting down the Rails offense in the opening stanza. Cloquet plated four runs in the first inning. After a ground out by leadoff batter Kayla Masessa the Lumberjacks got three straight hits from; Kelly Carlson, Dalyce Gustafson and Shania Paulson. Those hits were followed by Lizz Jezierski reaching on an error by the shortstop and a walk to Alyssa Michaelson which all resulted in four runs.

“Our biggest concern was that we didn’t have any let down after the win over Hermantown,” said coach Tondryk. “To put up a crooked number allowed the players to relax and play the game.”

Cloquet added a pair of runs in the top of the fifth inning when both Jezierski and Michaelson scored on a single by sophomore Sammy Zeadow to make the score 6-0.

Proctor inched back with three runs in the bottom of the fifth, but Cloquet appeared to break the game open by scoring five runs in the top of the seventh as they took an 11-3 lead. Michaelson and pitcher Chandler Beaupre both singled to start the rally. Zeadow and freshman catcher Jade Benko both reached on fielder choices with a run scoring on Benko’s fielder’s choice and then Masessa singled to score a run. Kelly Carlson grounded out to score another run and then Gustafson singled and the rout was on.

However, the Rails put the brakes to the rout when they responded with five runs of their own off of Beaupre and the Jacks found themselves in trouble especially after a long homerun by Katie Leonard. However, Beaupre reared back and got the final out with a strike out to end the threat and send the Jacks in to game two against Hibbing.

“We know that Proctor is a good hitting team so it didn’t surprise us to have them rally like they did,” mentioned Tondryk. “This time of year you don’t want to let a team get on a roll and get back in it, but Chandler did a good job of bouncing back after that three-run homerun.”

GAME TWO: CLOQUET 6 HIBBING 2

Beaupre responded in game two by handling the Hibbing Blue Jackets with a four-hit, five strikeout performance in Cloquet’s 6-2 win over Hibbing.

Kayla Masessa made sure the Jacks got off to a good start in the first inning when she bunted to lead off the game for a base hit. Carlson followed with a sacrifice bunt and after Gustafson popped out to short it was Shania Paulson pounding a base hit to score Masessa. The Jacks tacked on another run in the bottom of the third inning when Carlson singled with two outs and Gustafson launched a triple to score Carlson and Cloquet was up 2-0.

“We got off to another good start with the bunt by Masessa and the run scoring after the sacrifice bunt and base hit,” commented Tondryk. “We knew we’d have to keep putting the pressure on them and I think we did a good job of that.”

The Blue Jackets came back with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth inning with nobody out, but Beaupre and the defense bounced back to get out of the jam courtesy of a couple of big plays in the outfield by Liz Jezierski.

With the game tied 2-2 entering the bottom of the fifth inning Cloquet responded with a couple of runs of their own. With one out Masessa singled and after another out, and Masessa on second, Dalyce Gustafson rocked a double in the gap to make it 3-2. Then Paulson grounded to short, but the shortstop hurried the throw and overthrew first base allowing Gustafson to score to make it 4-2.

In the bottom of the sixth inning the Lumberjacks added a pair of insurance runs and it was all started by Beaupre who singled and then was pinch run for by Kaylee McMillen. Breanne Baker then pinch hit for Sammy Zeadow and sacrifice bunted McMillen to second. Benko grounded out to the pitcher and with two outs Masessa walked setting up a wild play by Kelly Carlson. Carlson surprised everyone including the Hibbing defense with a bunt for a hit and on the attempt to get Carlson out at first the third baseman overthrew first allowing both McMillen and Masessa to score giving the Jacks an insurmountable 6-2 edge.

“That was a huge key getting those final two runs, especially the way Chandler is pitching,” explained Tondryk. “I thought in the first game she struggled finding her spots, but she did a much better job in the second game.”

Beaupre was strong on the mound, but throughout the day the Jacks were stellar defensively with strong play from both Carlson and Gustafson in the middle of the infield and Paulson on the left corner at third. Despite a strong wind the Jacks outfield was never fooled and made all the plays and Michaelson was steady at first base all day long.

With the two wins the Jacks are the lone unbeaten team and are one win away from heading to the state tournament for the first time since 2002 and only the second time in school history. Standing in their way will be the Hibbing Blue Jackets. Hibbing opened with a 5-3 win over Virginia and then, after losing to Cloquet, the Blue Jackets managed to pound out a 21-8 win over the Proctor Rails.

Proctor gained the semi final round by rebounding after their loss to Cloquet by beating Virginia 8-3 before falling to Hibbing.

The final round will take place in Cloquet on Thursday beginning at 4pm at Braun Park. Should Hibbing win there would be a second game immediately following the first game. The winner advances to the state tournament next week at Mankato’s Caswell Park.

Kerry Rodd can be reached at kerry@northlandsportsonline.com