HIBBING—The Hibbing VFW baseball team clinched the No. 1 seed for the district playoffs as Post 1221 beat West Duluth 8-7 in game one of a doubleheader Friday at Al Nyberg Field.
In the second game, West Duluth came away with a 7-3 victory.
To get this win over a quality team like West Duluth was a big confidence booster for Hibbing.
“It’s a seven-team tournament, with six and seven having a play-in game,” Hibbing co-coach Tim Zubich said. “The top-two teams are guaranteed a bye, so that’s a big advantage. To save a couple of arms before you play is helpful.
“It’s going to be a wide-open tournament. Any team can beat any other team. West Duluth is probably the favorite.”
Kaden Augustine tossed 4.1 innings of nine-hit ball to get the win. He struck out four and walked two. Gavin Lamphere worked 2.2 innings, giving up two hits. He struck out one and walked two.
Gramdahl started for West Duluth. He worked one inning, giving up three hits. He fanned three and walked two. Lubovich worked two innings of two-hit ball. He struck out two and walked three. Hanson tossed three innings, giving up five hits. He struck out four and walked two.
West Duluth took a 2-0 lead after a half inning, but Hibbing responded with four runs in its half of the first.
West Duluth scored once in the second, but once again, Post 1221 came back with two runs to make 6-3.
Hibbing scored two more runs in the third to take a five-run lead, 8-3.
“We came up with some big walks and clutch hits,” Zubich said. “We put pressure on them. We’ve responded quite often this year, whether we’re down late or early. We’ve found ways to come back.
“They keep battling.”
It didn’t help that Post 1221 went scoreless in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
“Early on, we left guys in scoring position,” Zubich said. “Our bats didn’t clutch up to get a key hit. They kept us at bay. They were able to get out of some jams.”
In the meantime, West Duluth chipped away at that deficit by scoring twice in the fifth to make it 8-5 in the sixth, then in the seventh, West Duluth scored two more runs to trail by one.
“We knew we wouldn’t be able to hang a whole lot of zeros on them because they have speed, power and they run well,” Zubich said.
In the seventh, Lamphere got the first two hitters out, but he walked the third batter.
Vessel, who was catching, threw out that runner as he was trying to steal second for the final out of the game.
“Keeping that leadoff off base was huge,” Zubich said. “That’s how you get rallies going. Gavin pitched well in those last two innings. The guys were playing with that playoff mentality.
“They wanted to play well. We’re glad that we found a way to win. I’m glad for our guys to be in those situations. It was a tight game. We wanted to see how things played out. We’ve been hearing about them and how tough they are.
“That team swings it well. It was a good overall team win.”
Offensively, Post 1221 was led by Easton Fisher, Dylan Vesel and Cole Swanson with two hits each. Fisher and Swanson both had doubles. Fisher and Olin Roppe both had two RBI.
Aiden Davey, Augustine, Roppe and Lamphere each had one hit.
Hayden had three hits for West Duluth, including a double. Linn also had three hits, including a double and a triple, and one RBI. Marsolek had two hits.
In game two, Blix got the win for West Duluth, tossing five innings of four-hit ball. He struck out two and walked two.
Fisher started the game and worked four innings, allowing six hits, striking out four and walking two. Connor Heaton worked one inning. He gave up one hit, struck out two and walked one.
Hibbing scored once in the first, then West Duluth tied it in its half of the second.
Post 1221 took a 2-1 lead in the second, but West Duluth came up with a four-run third inning to make it 5-2.
West Duluth added two runs in the fifth.
Post 1221 would score once in the fifth, but it wasn’t enough to overcome that deficit.
Lubovich had two hits for West Duluth and two RBI. He had a double. Hanson also hit a double.
Swanson, Roppe, Kian Menara and James Jivery had the Hibbing hits, with Swanson hitting a double. Menara and Jivery both had triples.
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