Post 1221 holds on to beat Post 1172

VIRGINIA—When things start to unravel, the best way to handle it is staying cool, calm and collected.

The Hibbing VFW baseball team had to have all three of those characteristics against Rock Ridge Thursday, jumping out to an 11-2 lead, then Post 1221 had to hang on for a 12-9 victory over Post 1172 at Frandsen Bank and Trust Stadium.

Hibbing coach Tim Zubich was somewhat pleased with the way his tam didn’t lose their cool as Rock Ridge was chipping away at that lead.

“Overall, it was just OK,” Zubich said. “The tension started going. There were some close plays where we’ll go out there and question a call. We try to remain calm as coaches for the most part because otherwise they feed off of that.

“We started to get a little tight, but we have to make plays out there. We let them back in it, but they clutched up with some big hits. We had a couple of mental miscues, whch would have resulted in outs. We miscommunicated on coverage, and we were late getting there a couple of times. We have to execute the mental side.”

Post 1221 didn’t have any trouble executing on offense in the first inning.

Hibbing’s offense came out with a vengeance against Rock Ridge starting pitcher Owen Hallin.

Brayden Rewertz drew a walk to start the inning, then stole second and took third on a wild pitch.

Easton Fisher walked, but Hallin got the next hitter to ground back to him, holding Rewertz on third, but advancing Fisher to second.

Kaden Augustine grounded out to second, scoring Rewertz.

After that, Hibbing picked up five hits and one walk to plate five runs.

Blake Riccio had an RBI single, then after a walk to Dylan Vesel, Blake Kolden hit an RBI single. Cole Swanson lined a single to center to plate a run, then Gavin Lamphere singled to center for an RBI.

Rewertz, batting for the second time in the inning, hit an infield single to plate a run, but Post 1221 had a runner cut down at the plate for the final out of the inning.

“Rock Ridge did the same thing to us in our last game,” Zubich said. “I think they put up seven, then we put up six. We came back and made it interesting, like they did.”

That’s not the way Rock Ridge coach Paul Coombe pictured the game starting out.

“It wasn’t very good,” Coombe said. “It would have been nice to have a one, two three inning. We had some walks, but I don’t know if we were totally ready to play. Maybe we weren’t prepared enough to play today.

“It showed in the first inning.”

Hibbing used those walks to its advantage in the first inning, but that same issue has been plaguing Post 1221 the entire summer, and this game was no exception.

Both Owen Hallin and Cal Scott drew walks to start the bottom of the first, but this time, Post 1221 almost got out of it unscathed.

Aiden Bird singled to load the bases, then Jake Coombe hit a sacrifice fly to make it 6-1.

Hibbing starting pitcher Kolden got the next hitter to foul out.

Post 1221 responded with four runs in their half of the second.

It started with a walk to Fisher, then after a pop out, Augustine doubled home Fisher from first. Riccio singled, then Vesel walked to load the bases.

Kolden helped out his own cause with a two-run single.

Following a walk to Swanson, which reloaded the bases, Lamphere hit a ground ball to short. The throw to the plate was low and bounced away from the catcher, allowing Vesel to score to make it 10-1.

Rock Ridge got one back in its half of the second as Jasxon Lamppa walked, then took third on a single by Colten Marolt.

Hallin hit a sacrifice fly to score Lamppa, but Kolden got out of the jam with a groundout to keep it at 10-2.

Hibbing got that run back in the third as Fisher was hit by a pitch. Davey singled and Augustine walked to load the bases.

Riccio’s ground ball was misplayed for an error, allowing Fisher to score.

Post 1172 relief pitcher, Bird, escaped further damage by getting a 1-2-3 double play, and a groundout to short.

Even so, it seemed like a comfortable lead at the time.

“That was huge, but we have to pitch with that lead,” Zubich said. “We have to throw strikes, which all of our pitchers are trying to do. That’s how you let teams back, with a couple free bases, a clutch hit and before you know it, they’re back in it.”

Walks came back to haunt Post 1221 in the Rock Ridge third as Coombe and Rory Scuffy both drew base on balls. Lamppa made it hurt with an RBI single to make it 11-3.

Two more walks to Marolt and Grayson Bennett loaded bases, with two out.

To compound that, Hibbing had three throwing errors during the inning, allowing two runs to score to make it 11-5.

Post 1172 drew even closer in the fourth inning as Hallin and Scott hit back-to-back singles. Hallin would score on an error, then Bailey knocked in a run with a fielder’s choice ground ball.

Bird tripled home a run, then scored on the back end of a double steal to make it 11-8.

“They didn’t give up,” Coombe said. “They didn’t roll over. They didn’t say, ‘We’re going to have a five-inning game and be done with it.’ They made a game of it toward the end. With a little ball luck out there, we may have been able to score more after that.

“You can’t spot any team in this league with a nine-run lead and expect to have a good day.”

Hibbing got one run back in the fifth as Augustine and Riccio drew walks. After a sacrifice bunt, Kolden hit an RBI groundout to make it 12-8.

Another walk and error came back to bite Post 1221 in the sixth.

Coombe walked with one out, then Lamppa hit an infield single. A wild pitch moved both runners up a base, then Marolt hit a routine ground ball to third that was dropped, allowing Coombe to score to make it 12-9.

“The kids hustled around the base paths, and we made some good plays when we needed to in the later innings,” Coombe said. “We could have rolled over, but we didn’t. From a coaching standpoint, that’s the battle.”

Fortunately for Hibbing, Rewertz and Swanson picked off the runner at first to end the inning.

Lamphere came on in the seventh and faced four batters to preserve the win.

“It was an exciting game, but not necessarily the best-played game,” Zubich said. “There were a lot of walks, a lot of free bases, which we’d like to clean up going into the playoffs.”

Hallin tossed 1.1 innings, allowing six hits. He walked four. Scott tossed .1 innings, giving up three hits, walking two. Bird tossed five innings, giving up five hits, striking out two and walking two.

Frider threw 2.2 innings, allowing three hits. He struck out one, but walked six. Rewertz tossed 3.1 innings of seven-hit ball. He struck out two and walked one. Lamphere gave up one hit and struck out one.