CLOQUET—An outstanding pitching performance from sophomore Taylor Morley and great defense behind her all the way through brought the Rock Ridge softball team to victory Thursday as the Wolverines took down Cloquet 2-0 to move on in the Section 7AAA playoffs.
The win moves Rock Ridge further along in the winner’s bracket and sets up a contest with sixth-seeded North Branch, the only other undefeated team in the tournament, on Tuesday at Chisago Lakes High School.
While Morley’s pitching performance helped define Thursday’s win, things started off a little bit rocky as she tossed six straight balls to open the game. Walking Cloquet’s Morgan Olesiak and down 2-0 to Allie Jones, Wolverines head coach Paula Dundas went out to the circle to talk with Morley and attempt to settle things down and refocus.
Whatever the coach said to her player ended up working out in Rock Ridge’s favor as Morley turned things around, getting the strikeout on Jones and then striking out Bluthe Proulx immediately after for the second out.
“The biggest thing we had to get her to do was just take a deep breath and settle down,” Dundas said. “There’s a reason that this team is where they’re at and Taylor is a big part of that. So taking that deep breath, taking things one pitch at a time and making Cloquet earn hits off of her was what we told her to do.”
The Lumberjacks did push the lead runner to third with a single from Carly Johnson but Morley got Paige Goranson to fly out to short to end the inning.
Morley dueled for some time with the Cloquet starter Jones. Rock Ridge only drew a walk in the bottom of the first and then the two arms exchanged 1-2-3 second innings. It wasn’t until the bottom of the third that the Wolverines finally put a number up on the scoreboard.
The inning started off strong for the Lumberjacks, with Jones striking out Brynn Rozinka and Zoey Thyen back-to-back, but that brought up Chance Colbert at the top of Rock Ridge’s order. Colbert knocked a hard hit ball to the Cloquet shortstop, who couldn’t handle the play, letting the junior reach first while giving the Wolverines something to cheer for.
Quick on the bags, Colbert stole her way to second, setting up the RBI single to center field from Mattelyn Seppi to put the Wolverines out in front 1-0. Three more strikeouts for Morley in the bottom of the fourth let Rock Ridge hold their lead as they inched towards victory.
Cloquet pushed a runner to second in the top of the fifth inning, but the Wolverines defense didn’t let her get any further to bring up the bottom of the fifth inning.
Pinch hitting for Rozinka, Ayla Lokken started off the inning and dropped a single into shallow left field to get things going. Rozinka re-entered and moved to second on a sac bunt from Thyen, once again bringing up Colbert.
The junior shortstop found her pitch and blasted a double to deep center-left field, scoring the runner to make it a 2-0 game. Colbert eventually made it to third but couldn’t make it home as the score stood at 2-0 through five innings.
In the top of the sixth, the sophomore Thyen made what was likely the play of the game in left field. With the No. 4 hitter Johnson at the plate, the Cloquet shortstop smashed a hard hit ball into the center-left gap.
As hard hit as it was, it wasn’t too much for Thyen who made a sprinting catch in the outfield to save at least a double and get the first out. Even if the Wolverines’ bats weren’t going crazy this game, it was the team’s defensive work that made sure Cloquet couldn’t fight back.
“We’ve worked for two years when it comes to putting on pressure and pushing ourselves to make sure we can make plays that are beyond routine,” Dundas said of the defensive work. “I think that’s a testament to how hard Zoey has worked, along with the rest of the team. She works her butt off, got a great read and look at the advantage you can have when you can run that fast.
“You get those extra two steps and you save a double or a triple with nobody out. Now you have a little bit more room to play strategically.”
Morley put the Lumberjacks down in order to end the inning and then gave up a lone single in the top of the seventh as the Wolverines held on to get the 2-0 win. Morley finished the game giving up just four hits and two walks while striking out 11 batters.
“Arguably, she is one of the best pitchers in the area,” Dundas said of Morley. “She’s shown a lot of maturity this year and I think that came through for us. She starts off with six straight balls but then she comes back, strikes that girl out and really just kept rolling through the whole seven innings after that.”
Offensively, two runs isn’t a lot of wiggle room to work with but when it comes to the postseason, the only run that matters is the one that puts a team on top.
“It’s playoff time. At the end of the day, a win is a win. Would we have liked to put up some more runs? Yes. We had a couple more opportunities but you’re seeing everybody’s best right now.
“Maybe we could have executed a bit better or pushed a few more across, but when your pitching is throwing well and your defense is playing well, two runs was enough for us today.”
The win moves Rock Ridge into the Section 7AAA semifinals on Tuesday, they’ll take on No. 6 North Branch who upset Chisago Lakes 2-1 while Rock Ridge was playing Cloquet. Set for 3:30 p.m. at Chisago Lakes High School, Dundas says they’ll need to keep playing the Wolverine brand of softball if they want to punch a ticket into Thursday’s section final.
“The key going into next week is to just continue to do what we’ve been doing. That starts in the circle with our pitching but if we continue to have that good defense behind and start putting up some runs, we’ll have our chances to win.”
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