HIBBING—The Hibbing School softball team let one slip through their fingers.
The Bluejackets had a 4-0 lead through four innings, then a 4-1 lead after five innings, but North Branch outscored Hibbing 8-3 over the final three innings en route to a 9-7 Section 7AAA quarterfinal victory Wednesday at Cheever Field.
The loss sends the Bluejackets into the elimination round of the playoffs, where they will take on Hermantown at 1 p.m. today at Braun Park in Cloquet.
“We knew North Branch was a scrappy team,” Hibbing coach Kadee Vesledahl said. “Sure enough, they put the ball in play.”
As for North Branch coach Kathrine Crudo, her team persevered through some early trouble to come away with the victory.
“This whole season, we’ve handled some different conditions, but so has everybody else with the weather,’ Crudo said. “We’ve had some severe injuries, season-ending injuries, but we knew it was going to take this long to finally come around.
“They’re a great team, and that pitcher is phenomenal, but we had heart and guts.”
Hibbing did take control early when Aune Boben and Emma McDowell both had base hits in the first inning, then Kendal Gustavsson hit an RBI groundout to make it 1-0.
The Bluejackets added to that lead in the second when Abbie Helms doubled and scored on an error, then in the fourth, Hibbing made it 4-0 on an RBI fielder’s choice by McDonald, and an RBI single by Gustavsson.
But, Hibbing left the bases loaded, and that eventually came back to haunt the Bluejackets.
“Apparently, that lead wasn’t comfortable,” Vesledahl said. “We did leave too many runners on base. That shows that we’re getting on base, but now, we need to execute it when pressure is a privilege.
“It needed to be executed, and it didn’t happen. The pressure got to us. Like Jen (Boben) says all of the time, ‘You play the game you love for the pressure that builds for you in life.’ They learned a good life lesson today to never give up. They didn’t until the end.”
Crudo wasn’t too concerned about the early deficit.
“At that time it was still early,” Crudo said. “That pitcher is a great pitcher. My hat goes off to her, but we knew what we needed to adjust with our at bats. Our first couple of at bats, I thought people were taking what they were learning from here.
“They were putting the ball in play hard and on turf, the ball goes a lot harder and faster. You can take extra bases vs. if you’re on a regular field. Singles turn into doubles, and doubles turn into triples. We had energy the whole game throughout.
That’s exactly what happened as the Vikings started to make their comeback.
Aubrey Charpentier had an RBI double in the fifth, then North Branch scored three times in the sixth thanks to doubles by Morgan Mann and Alexis Mathison, and a triple by Tori Thurmer to knot it 4-4.
“We were feeling it there, but we knew we needed more,” Crudo said. “We knew that pitcher was coming up again, and she was burning us left and right on the bases, too.”
The Bluejackets were able to respond with three runs in the sixth as Emma McDowell, Gustavsson and Grace McDowell all had an RBI.
It was deflating, according to Crudo.
“Especially since we worked so hard with our hits, then they were bunting,” Crudo said. “On three pitches, they scored three runs. We were hitting the ball, and they were beating us with small ball. Hats off to their coach. She coached a great game.”
But could Hibbing shut down those Viking bats in the seventh?
The answer was no as North Branch took advantage of two walks and a hit batter to load the bases.
Mathison hit a two-run single, Thurmer a two-run triple and Makayla Mihajlovich laid down a suicide squeeze bunt to make it 9-7
“I liked everything about that inning,” Crudo said. “We executed the big things. The suicide bunt was fun. That was the bottom of our order that turned it over for us. It was awesome to see things coming together. Everybody had energy and believed in each other.”
Hannah Bernier was the winning pitcher, allowing nine hits. She struck out 11.
Boben gave up eight hits, striking out 11.
Local News
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