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North Branch 9, Hibbing 7

Two wild comebacks for the Vikings highlighted their first round win over the Bluejackets of Hibbing last week in Section 7AAA.

Hibbing, the home team, went up 4-0 after the first four innings, but the Viking bats, led by the bottom of the order Morgan Mann, Alexis Mathison and Tori Thurmer, came alive and tied the game with one run in the fifth and three in the sixth.

Hibbing, the third seed, answered back with a big three run inning in the bottom of the sixth, leaving the Vikes down to their last three outs.

Sparked by the bottom of the order again, but coupled with some timely walks and hits from Peyton Verdon and Aubrey Charpentier, North Branch scored five runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a 9-7 lead.

Hannah Bernier, who had an up-and-down senior season from the pitcher’s circle, slammed the door on the Hibbing offense in the bottom of the seventh, giving NB the upset win, and advancing them to play the second-seeded Chisago Lakes Wildcats.

North Branch 2, Chisago Lakes 1

Abigail Pfeifer delivered the big blow  of the Vikings’ section matchup with the Wildcats, doubling to drive in Kaytlin Hammond in the top of the sixth.  Viking pitcher Hannah Bernier held the home team Wildcats at bay for the last two innings, and the Vikings came away with a 2-1 win Thursday, May 23 at Braun Park.  The win sent the Vikings to a semifinal matchup with Rock Ridge yesterday at Chisago Lakes High School.  A win against Rock Ridge would send the Vikings to the section championship on Thursday at Wheeler Field in Duluth, while a loss would make them play a second game yesterday against the winner of the Grand Rapids-Hibbing game, with the winner of that game advancing to Thursday’s championship game.  The loss for the Wildcats dropped them into an elimination bracket game against the Grand Rapids Thunderhawks.

The Wildcats scratched across their only run of the game in the first inning.  Leadoff batter Jess Ditte-Hoefler walked and was sacrificed to second by Jesa Leritz.  After Anna Zaruba grounded to third, holding Dittel-Hoefler at second, Melana Larson reached on an error by Viking center fielder Aubrey Charpentier, and Dittel-Hoefler scored to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.

The Vikings did all the scoring they needed in the sixth inning.  Victoria Thurmer singled to lead off and stole second.  Mikayla Mihajlovich grounded out to second, moving Thurmer to third.  Hammond executed a perfect suicide squeeze to drive in Thurmer.  After Peyton Verdon popped out for the second out, Pfeifer delivered the game’s big hit.

The Wildcats got another good start from Makenna Thorsen, but Viking starter Bernier mostly silenced the Wildcat bats.  Bernier allowed one unearned run on three hits, walked five and struck out four. Thorsen allowed two earned runs on five hits, walked one and struck out one.  Zaruba came in to pitch the last two innings and gave her team a chance to win, allowing no baserunners and striking out four Vikings.

“Coming up with these wins is  just something you won’t see in the box scores: heart. We have had a lot of heart running into this postseason and that’s something you can’t coach but only hope it gets instilled,” North Branch Head Coach Kathy Crudo said. “The job isn’t done. We always want one more day with this squad. Having all 18 of these section girls locked in and truly believing it and we can do this, is something I’ve been extremely proud of. We got dogs on this team and they showed so far that they are gritty and don’t care about the opponents record or who’s “supposed to win.’”

Section was completed on Wednesday and early Thursday, after the County Press went to print. NB was taking on top seed Rock Ridge in the finals, and there were multiple scenarios to play out depending on the result. For the full recap, check out next week’s Press.

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