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Cloquet 15

North Branch 0 (5 innings)

Still riding the wave that pushed them past Chisago Lakes two days earlier, last Saturday, both Cloquet and Hermantown took the Vikings surfboard and broke it in half.

Against Cloquet, the Lumberjacks scored four in the first, seven in the third and four more in the fourth to build a 15-0 lead on the Vikings. Meanwhile, North Branch managed just three hits and never got a runner past second base. The end result was a 15-0 loss in five innings.

Head coach Larry Brodin could tell how the day was going to go after the first Cloquet hitter of the game.

“She smashed a home run and the race was on,” mentioned Brodin.

Tiffany Good suffered the loss on the mound, pitching the first three innings. Stephanie Saxe came in to pitch the fourth.

Hermantown 17

North Branch 1 (5 innings)

Just hours after falling to Cloquet, things actually got tougher for North Branch against Hermantown.

Like Cloquet, the Hawks jumped on the Vikings early and often, scoring four in the first and three in the second. However, the big inning was the fourth, that’s when Hermantown scored 10 runs en route to a 17-1 win in five innings.

The Vikings lone run came in the top of the first. Batting with two runners on, Tiffany Good doubled in Stephanie Saxe for the game’s first run.

Unfortunately, there would be a lot more runs and none of them came from North Branch. The Vikings were held hitless the rest of the way. Their best chance at another run came in the third when Danni Sonnenfeld reached third but she was stranded there.

Overall, it was a long day for Brodin and his team.

“It was a cold, windy day and we just didn’t compete,” said Brodin. “We’ll just have to go on from here.”

Maggie Johnson picked up the loss for the Vikings, working the first three innings.

At the plate, Hoveland and Good combined for the Vikings three hits. Hoveland had two singles and Good finished with a double.

The loss dropped the Vikings record to 1-7 overall. Up next, North Branch gets back to the conference schedule with Pine City, Zimmerman and Big Lake up this week.

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