Giants fall to state-ranked Esko, 5-0

AURORA—The Mesabi East baseball team ran into a highly state-ranked Esko team on Monday afternoon.

The Giants were only able to grab two hits as Esko came away with a 5-0 win.

“I told the guys that they hung in there today with one of the state’s highest ranked teams,” Mesabi East head coach Chad Sahr said. “We ran into a very good pitcher and just couldn’t get anything going off him.”

Both teams went down in order in the first inning. Giants starter Cooper Sickel and Esko starter Dylan Marciulionis both had little issue early on.

Esko scored their first run of the game in the top of the second inning. Isaak Sertich hit a single, stole second base, and came in to score when Finn Furcht hit a triple. The Giants got out of the inning without giving up any more runs.

Neither team would score in the third or fourth inning efforts and Sickle was still tossing a good game on the mound for the Giants.

The Giants could not get any big hits in the fifth inning.

Esko added to their lead in the top of the sixth inning when Serich hit a double down the right field line. He then went to third when Jamis Halverson grounded out to second base. He then came in to score when Trent Ondrus flew out to center field.

Esko led 2-0 when Mesabi East came up to bat in the bottom of the sixth inning. Following two outs in the inning, Ryder Gerulli hit a single, but Kruse flew out to left field to end the inning.

“We had a chance to get a run but just couldn’t get a big hit off him,” Sahr said. Esko added to their lead in the top of the seventh inning when Sam Panger reached on an error, Easton Harker hit a single and Sam Haugen followed up with a double that knocked in Panger to make it a 4-0 Esko lead.

Esko closed out the scoring when Furcht blasted a double to knock in Haugen and make it a 5-0 game.

Haugen came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh inning for Esko.

He got the Giants to go down in order and Esko came away with the five-run win.

“I told my guys we battled against a top ranked team in the state,” Sahr said. “We did a lot of good things out there and just need to pick up a couple of the errors we made and it’s a totally different game.”

The Giants are right back in action on Thursday, when they travel to face North Woods.