'Jacket nine looks to get their offense going

HIBBING—In the eight-team Section 7AAA playoffs, the Hibbing High School baseball team is No. 3 in the field in runs given up.

Offensively, that’s a different story.

The Bluejackets are last in the field in runs scored.

So as No. 5 seeded Hibbing gets set to open the 7AAA playoffs today against No. 4 seeded Rock Ridge, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at Frandsen Bank and Trust Field in Virginia, Bluejacket coach Jay Wetzel is hoping his teams’ bats come around.

It’s a tale of two different Hibbing teams during the 2024 season.

“We’ve been playing solid defense and pitching well,” Wetzel said. “We have some depth pitching-wise, which is important in a double-elimination tournament. We have three or four guys that can start and give us some innings.

“On the flip side, we don’t score many runs. We were last in the section, but we were still able to get a five seed based on our pitching and defense.”

Is it even possible for the Bluejackets to turn the light switch on offensively?

“It’s strange because we have guys that can get on base, we get guys in scoring position, but we haven’t been consistent enough in getting that base hit,” Wetzel said. “We’re running up to six sophomores at time, so we have a young lineup.

“The last couple of weeks, we’ve put runners in scoring position. We’ve had good chances to score, but we haven’t had that big hit in those situations.”

All Hibbing can do is keep swinging away.

“We keep on preaching that when it’s your turn, step up and be that guys who takes a good swing,” Wetzel said. “Hitting is contagious, but hitting is, too. We’ve been stuck in a rut the last couple of weeks where we haven’t scored a lot of runs.”

In the Bluejackets last six games, they’ve been shutout three times and scored one time twice. That’s a total of five runs in six games.

“We haven’t put up big numbers in a while, yet in every one of those games, we were in them,” Wetzel said. “That’s good and bad. We’re a couple of good defensive plays and swings from winning multiple games.”

So what does Hibbing have to do to get some runs?

“That’s hard,” Wetzel said. “When you’re not swinging well, should we be more aggressive on the base paths? Should we bunt a little more? Those are situations where you’re gambling a little more.

“You can run yourself out of an inning. You don’t want to try and do too much, but we have to do something to get the ball rolling.”

Hibbing and the Wolverines did play in early April, with Rock Ridge winning 7-0.

“We played them a long, long time ago,” Wetzel said. “It was our first game, and their fourth. It was our first time on a field. I’d like to think that we’ve caught up a little bit. It was a game where they did everything better than us, hitting, fielding and they pitched better.”

The Bluejackets should be familiar with Frandsen Bank and Trust Field.

“We only played two home games, but our five other home games were on their field,” Wetzel said. “We’re more familiar with their field than our own. We’ve played there enough times that we know how the turf reacts.

“We’ll be comfortable playing there.”

What will be the key to the game?

“Step one, is keeping them limited offensively,” Wetzel said. “The top end of their lineup hurt us. We made some mistakes, but we have to limit their scoring opportunities, especially since we’re struggling offensively ourselves.

“We have to keep the game close. The longer we can keep the game close, the more pressure it puts on the higher seed in the playoffs.”