Lumberjacks peaking for playoffs

The Cloquet boys baseball team made the two-hour trip to Princeton Friday night and promptly handed the Tigers a 5-3 loss as the ‘Jacks picked up their fifth win on the season.

“The boys have been playing better of late,” said Cloquet head coach Rick Norrgard. “We really had a tough stretch when we played seven games in eight days, which is very difficult for a high school pitching staff.”

Sophomore pitcher Cade Anderson had a big day on the mound, pitching Cloquet to the win.

“Cade threw well against Princeton with six innings and zero earned runs,” Norrgard said. “He leads our team in innings pitched with 18.”

Also pitching well for Cloquet are freshman Jack Sorenson — whom Norrgard said has been a pleasant surprise by throwing 14 innings with an earned run average of 1.90 — and senior Jon Baker. Baker has 19 strikeouts in his 12 innings of pitching so far this spring.

Against Princeton, Gavin Rasmussen went three for four with a couple of RBIs; both Jake Huhta and Jack Sorenson added two hits and an RBI in the win for Cloquet.

“Our approach and discipline at the plate has been very good, getting 62 walks in 12 games so far,” Norrgard said. “Senior Noah Niemi and sophomore Zach Tyman are leading the team in batting average, while seniors Gavin Rasmussen and Jon Baker have on-base percentages around .600.”

As of Monday, the Lumberjacks record sits at 5-7 after winning three of their last four games.

“The goal going forward is to play well and consistently and to play our best baseball heading into playoffs,” Norrgard said. “The section seems to be pretty wide open.”

The Cloquet team had a 4-2 record in section play heading into this week’s matchups with Grand Rapids at home on Tuesday, where they lost 6-5 in 8 innings, and Chisago Lakes on Wednesday as this issue of the Pine Knot News went to press.

Norrgard said the Lumberjacks were up two runs against Grand Rapids, then Grand Rapids got three runs in the top of the fifth.

Cloquet responded with three runs in the bottom of the fifth to go up 5-3. Grand Rapids tied the game with two runs in the top of the seventh, and went up one in the top of the eighth to win.

“It feels like another game we could have won and maybe should have won,” Norrgard said. “We can’t quite figure out how to win those games where we are winning late.”

Cloquet will play in a wood bat tournament in Hibbing over the weekend.

The Lumberjacks play the Eskomos at Cloquet’s Mettner field at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21 in their season finale before playoffs begin. It should be a good game, Norrgard said.