Lady Bulldogs Back In Section Finals

Wes Vork-NSO

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May 29, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Carlton Bulldogs opened the section 7A girls double elimination tournament in Cohasset on Tuesday afternoon with an 8-5 victory over the South Ridge Panthers. The Bulldogs avenged a loss earlier this season to South Ridge, where the Panthers came from behind to defeat Carlton. This time the Bulldogs prevailed with an 8-5 victory as they advanced to face Cherry in the battle of the unbeaten s Tuesday afternoon.

The Bulldogs opened up fast in the top of the first inning as Carlton scored three runs to take the early 3-0 lead. Three first inning singles and two walks led to the early lead for Carlton. The Panthers responded in the bottom of the first inning scoring two runs on a two run home run from Kourtney Karppinen that cut the lead to 3-2 after one inning. Alyssa Johnson scored the third run for South Ridge in the bottom of the second to tie the game at 3-3.

Carlton retook the lead in the top of the fourth inning when Brooke Camps and Alanna Groth scored to put Carlton in front 5-3. With Carlton leading 5-3, again the Panthers responded in the bottom of the fourth inning as Johnson scored her third run of the game, which cut the Bulldogs lead to one at 5-4. Carlton strung three hits in a row to add two more runs in the top of the fifth inning to give Carlton a 7-4 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.

Kendra Dallmann’s home run to start the bottom of the fifth inning would be the closest the Panthers came as Carlton went on to add another run in the top of the sixth to win this contest by three runs at a 8-5 final mark Tuesday. Brook Camps, Alanna Groth and Myranda Papesh all had two hits for the Bulldogs in the three run victory. Clarissa Nelson added three sacrifice bunts in the Carlton win. Grace Macor picked up the win for Carlton.

After the victory over the Panthers, the Bulldogs faced the state’s top ranked team in the Cherry Tigers and the Bulldogs battled tight, but in the end it was the Tigers prevailing by a score of 4-1. The Tigers scored two runs in the top of the first inning. DeAnn Bjerklie doubled in Angel Dahl, who had singled to start the bottom of the first inning; and Bjerklie scored on a single from Macy Etter.

The Tigers made it 3-0 in the third inning when Etter tripled in Taylor Sauter, who had singled with two outs to give the Tigers the three run lead. Carlton had chances in four of the first five innings, but were unable to come up with a hit that would continue each of those innings.

Bjerklie scored her second run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning, which made it a 4-0 lead for Cherry.

Carlton scored their lone run in the top of the sixth inning when Alanna Groth scored on a single from Megan Nelson.

The Bulldogs loss dropped them back in the double elimination tournament as they faced Silver Bay who had defeated South Ridge in a football game type score of 20-17. The Bulldogs had their hitting shoes on as they outscored Silver Bay 12-4 to face a return match up on Thursday afternoon in Cohasset.

The Mariners scored four runs in the top of the first inning Tuesday and held on to the lead, forcing Carlton to play from behind. Megan Bodin scored Carlton’s first run in the top of the second to cut the lead to 4-1, Hannah Benson scored on a single from Brooke Camps to cut the Silver Bay lead to 4-2 after four innings. Four straight two out hits gave Carlton a 5-4 lead after six innings, and a huge seventh inning of seven runs moved the Bulldogs back into the section finals for the second consecutive season.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com