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Chisago Lakes 4, Cloquet 3 (9 innings)

Courtesy runner Jess Dittel scored on a wild pitch with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the top-seeded Wildcats a 4-3 win over the fifth-seeded Cloquet Lumberjacks in the championship bracket of the Section 7AAA softball tournament Saturday, May 27 at Braun Park in Cloquet.  Sam Johnson drove in all three of the Wildcats’ runs prior to the winning run.  The win sent the Wildcats to face the second-seeded North Branch Vikings in the next round of the section tournament Tuesday, May 30 at the Grand Rapids Sports Complex.

With the game scoreless, Anna Zaruba and Melana Larson led off the bottom of the second inning with back-to-back singles.  Lily Myhre’s sacrifice bun moved the runners to second and third.  Johnson singled to drive in both runners to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.  Cloquet tied the score with a two-run double in the top of the fourth.  Larson tripled to lead off the bottom of the sixth.  One out later, Johnson singled to drive in Larson, and the Wildcats led 3-2.  The Lumberjacks tied it up with a triple and a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh, sending the game to extra innings.  Melanie Anderson singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth.  Dittel came in as the courtesy runner for catcher Anderson.  She sprinted to second on a pitch in the dirt, went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jesa Leritz and scored on a wild pitch to give the Wildcats the win.

Anna Zaruba started and went six innings.  She allowed two earned runs on three hits, walked two and struck out seven.  

Ashley Mandell picked up the win in three innings of relief.  She allowed one earned run on one hit and struck out five.

North Branch 11, Duluth Denfeld 0

North Branch 3, Hermantown 0

Hannah Bernier spun two gems to shut out seventh-seeded Duluth Denfeld in the opening round of sections, and then backed it up with an even better performance against third-seeded Hermantown in the section semifinals.

Bernier threw the complete game shutout over the Hawks by allowing just two hits with six strikeouts.

The Vikes manufactured their runs in the game, the first coming on a stolen base and wild pitch score, and the second on a squeeze play that scored Katelyn Hammond.

That was all Bernier would need before the Vikes added one more insurance run late in the game as the Vikings moved on to play CL in the finals of the upper bracket.

Chisago Lakes 10, North Branch 0 (6 innings)

A three-run homer by Ashley Mandell and a three-run double by Tianna Ritter broke open a close game and the Chisago Lakes Wildcat went on to shut out the North Branch Vikings 10-0 in the championship bracket of the Section 7AAA tournament Tuesday, May 30 at the Grand Rapids Sports Complex.  The game was shortened to six innings because of the ten-run rule.  Mandell pitched all six innings to pick up the win.  The loss sent the Vikings to the elimination bracket to face sixth-seeded Grand Rapids immediately after the loss to the Wildcats.  The Vikings beat Grand Rapids 7-3 to advance to the section final.  The Wildcats and Vikings will play for the section championship at Forest Lake High School today at 3:30 p.m.   If the Wildcats win Game 1, they will be section champs and head to the state tournament for the second year in a row.  If the Vikings win Game 1, the teams will play again after Game 1, and the winner of Game 2 will be the section champ and advance to the state tournament, which will take place Thursday, June 8 and Friday, June 9 at Caswell Park in Mankato.

A Viking drilled a ball over the head of Wildcat center fielder Chloe Ruza early in the game.  Ruza raced back, dove toward the center field fence, and caught the ball over her head to thwart an early Viking attempt at a rally.  An inning later, the Vikings had runners on second and third with no outs with the Wildcats leading 1-0.  An overthrow sailed over third base into left field.  Left fielder Jesa Leritz, racing in to back up the play, scooped up the ball and fired it to catcher Melanie Anderson to nip the runner at home and preserve the Wildcats’ slim lead.  Mandell hit a three-run homer to give the Wildcats some breathing room and Ritter’s three run double made it 7-0.  The Wildcats kept adding runs and secured the win when the tenth run crossed the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Senior Mandell pitched all six innings for the Wildcats to get the win.

Wildcat head coach Brenda Carlson said, “Ashley pitched will and kept them off balance, and also gave us a big boost offensively.  After her home run, we just started hitting.  We were only able to manufacture one run in the first four innings, but our defense held us in this game until we started scoring.  This was a true 18-person win  Everybody contributed – baserunning, pinch-hitting, cheering, and talking on the bench.  It was pretty awesome.  And we are going into Thursday’s championship game with a lot of confidence.”

North Branch 8, Grand Rapids 7

The Vikings had to dust themselves off and get ready to face the winner of Hermantown-Grand Rapids in the finals of the lower bracket.

It looked for some time like the third-seeded Hawks were coming for a rematch with the Vikings, but the sixth-seeded Thunderhawks used a late charge to win 8-7 and move on to face North Branch.

The Vikings, for their part, took care of business to get another crack at Chisago Lakes. Bernier pitched well again and the offense, led by Peyton Verdon and Erin Pederson, scored plenty to earn North Branch the win and the right to face the Wildcats again.

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