Cloquet Comes Up Just Short In VFW Finals

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

For additional photos click here to view our complete photo gallery

Aug 2, 2012

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

Hermantown- Ely jumped out fast Wednesday night and withheld a Cloquet comeback to defeat Cloquet by a score of 6-4 and capture the District 8 VFW championship. The win advances Ely to the state VFW tournament in Mankato next week.

Ely scored three runs in the top of the first inning on three hits and a hit batter to lead 3-0 after one inning. Cloquet scored one run in the bottom of the second inning when Dylan Michaud doubled to start the inning and later scored on a single by Austin Gotchnik to cut the Ely lead to 3-1 after two innings.

Ely regained a three run lead in the third inning when they scored their fourth run off a bases on balls and an error, which made the score 4-1 after three innings of play. Cloquet added two runs in the fifth inning when Ben Merrill doubled and scored on a single from Brandon Conklin.

Conklin scored Cloquet’s third run when he scored on a single off the bat of Nate Weets and Cloquet moved within one at 4-3 after five innings. Cloquet tied the game in the sixth inning when an error allowed Travis Bartlett to reach first base, Gotchnik sacrificed Bartlett to second. Bartlett then scored on a single from Weets to tie the game at 4-4 after six innings.

A hit batter, two errors, and two bloop base hits gave Ely a two run margin in the seventh inning as they shut down Cloquet in the bottom of the seventh and advance to the state tournament next week in Mankato.

Nate O’Hara finished with three hits in the game for Cloquet, while Brandon Conklin and Austin Gotchnik both added two hits in the loss. Cloquet finished with 11 hits while stranding 10 base runners.

The Cloquet VFW team finished the season with a record of 27-8 overall. Cloquet was coached by Bruce Kahara, Connor Stowell, and Daryl Neimi.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com