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North Branch’s baseball team kicked off last week with an extra innings win over the Zimmerman Thunder on Monday, April 21, but a tough matchup against Princeton followed, and a rain out against Monticello kept them at 1-1 for the week.

North Branch 6, Zimmerman 5

Jacob Robillard had four hits and three RBIs and the Vikings scored the winning run on a suicide squeeze attempt in the top of the ninth inning to beat the Zimmerman Thunder 6-5 on Monday, April 21.

North Branch jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning when Robillard ripped a triple into the gap that scored two runs. 

NB starter Lucas Goggin gave one of those runs back in the bottom of the frame.

As the game wore into the later innings, NB got an insurance run in the fifth inning to go up 3-1, but the Thunder answered right back in the bottom of the fifth to keep their deficit at one.

The Vikings again added a single run in the sixth inning and again were in a good spot, up 4-2 going into the. bottom of the sixth.

But, Goggin faltered to start the inning and then the relievers couldn’t get the outs fast enough, and Zimmerman scored two runs to tie the game at 4-4.

The Vikings offense was relentless, though, as they retook the lead in the top of the seventh inning with an RBI single from Jackson Puelston.

But again, the resilient Thunder wouldn’t go away quietly. They scored their own run in the bottom half of the seventh inning, pushing the game to extra innings.

Both teams went down without a threat in the eighth inning, but in the top of the ninth, Puelston got on base for NB and Thorsen got a rally going by reaching base and advancing Puelston to third.

At that point, head coach Matt Solberg called for the rare suicide squeeze play to bring Puelston home. Although the bunt didn’t get laid down, it was because the Zimmerman pitcher was distracted by Puelston coming down the line and uncorked a wild pitch, allowing him to score easily and give NB the 6-5 lead that they would finally finish off after Zimmerman went scoreless in the bottom of the ninth.

Robillard ended the day four-of-four with three RBIs, Ethan Thorsen was two-of-four with one run and Puelston was two-of-five with one run and one RBI.

Goggin went six-plus innings for NB, allowing five hits and five runs, but only three were earned. He struck out nine.

Princeton 11, North Branch 3

The Vikings tried to pounce on the Tigers in their Mississippi 8 match up by scoring a run in the top of the first inning, but Princeton ambushed Puelston, who was starting for NB, for five runs in the bottom of the first inning, and they cruised to the 11-3 win from there.

Pederson and Goggin each had two hits for the Vikings, and Robillard and Thorsen each had a hit.

Robillard, Pederson and Thorsen combined for three innings of three run ball in relief of Puelston, but the NB offense couldn’t match the Tiger output.

“The start to our season has been a bit of a struggle with last years senior class vacating the majority of innings on the mound, prominent spots in the lineup, and major defensive positions,” Solberg said. “We also lost one of our most valuable players Ben Herges to an injury who is our primary catcher and two hitter. However, the guys have started to step into their new roles and gain confidence as the year has progressed. They are an extremely positive group of athletes that are hungry to get better and I know we will be playing our best baseball come playoff time.”

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