The International Falls VFW baseball team has earned a No. 1 seed in the Eighth District Tournament that begins Saturday in Grand Rapids after winning last weekend’s North Sub-District Tournament held in Ely and Soudan.

The Falls won all three games it played last weekend and capped off the tournament Sunday evening in Ely with a 4-3, come-from-behind victory over Hibbing to win the top seed.

“Overall, I think we played pretty good,” said Falls VFW head coach Eric Walls. “We had one inning (against Hibbing) where we made a couple of key mistakes that cost us two runs — simple mistakes that I think we can correct in practice this week.”

The Falls took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Jackson Vollom singled and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Kulig.

Hibbing then took a 3-1 lead by scoring all of its runs in the top of the third.

The Falls continued to trail by a pair of runs until the bottom of the fifth when Wyatt Ulrich led off the inning with a walk and Hibbing pulled its starting pitcher, Dennis Saatoff, and placed Logan Radovich on the mound.

After Jack Mellstrom singled and advanced Ulrich to second, Radovich threw a wild pitch to place both of Falls’ runners in scoring position for Ben Humbert, who singled to drive in two runs and tie the game at 3-3.

Kevin Kilbride had a bunt single to move Humbert to second and Jack Bartkowski followed that up with a sacrifice bunt to move both runners in scoring position.

Humbert then scored what turned out to be the winning run when Vollom grounded out to first.

“Jack Bartkowski had a great bunt — moved a couple of runners around,” Walls said. “I don’t think (Hibbing is) as deep as we are in the pitching.”

Ulrich started on the mound for the Falls and recorded the win after pitching the first six innings, allowing three unearned runs on eight hits with two walks while striking out five. Humbert pitched the seventh to pick up a save, allowing a hit with no runs.

“Wyatt pitched very well, Hibbing swings the bat obviously very well, but Benny came in and shut them down in the seventh,” Walls said.

Of the Falls’ seven hits, Humbert and Kilbride each ended up with two.

The Falls, which improved its overall season record to 16-5, opens the eight-team, double-elimination District Tournament at noon on Saturday at Legion Field in Grand Rapids against the South’s No. 4 seed, Hermantown.

Hibbing advances to the District Tournament as the North’s No. 2 seed, while the Grand Rapids Grey and Greenway also advance to the tournament of out the North Sub-District.

I. Falls 2, R. Grey 0

Humbert threw a complete-game shutout and had a no-hitter going for 5 1/3 innings Saturday afternoon when the Falls defeated the Rapids Grey, 2-0, in Ely to win its second game of the Sub-District Tournament and clinch a spot in the District Tournament.

“Ben just pitched really well,” said Falls VFW assistant coach Jay Bartkowski. “He had good control. He was always around the strike zone. He had them on their heels a little bit.”

Both of the Rapids Grey’s hits came in the sixth inning off Humbert, who also gave up four walks while striking out 13 over seven innings.

“In the sixth, give (the Rapids Grey) credit — they hit a couple balls hard, got a couple guys on, and the next thing you know you’ve got the bases loaded and one out,” Jay Bartkowski said. “Benny beared down a little bit and got a couple of big outs (with strikeouts).”

The Falls scored both of its runs in the bottom of the third when Vollom led off with a single followed by a bunt single by Kulig. Darian Erickson then advanced the two runners in scoring position on a sacrifice bunt.

Ulrich singled to drive in Vollom and Jack Mellstrom grounded into a fielder’s choice to bring home Kulig.

“Guys executing little plays scored us our runs,” Jay Bartkowski said.

Of the five hits the Falls could muster off Rapids Grey pitcher Noah Johnson, Ulrich had two of them.

I. Falls 15, R. Orange 0

The Falls opened the Sub-District Tournament on Saturday morning in Soudan and ended up shutting out the Grand Rapids Orange, 15-0, over five innings.

“We hadn’t played in a long time — it had been almost 10 days — it was just nice to see us swinging the bat and making some plays defensively,” Jay Bartkowski said. “Both pitchers threw well (Saturday).”

Mellstrom started on the mound for the Falls, but left after facing one batter in the top of the third when he complained of having tightness in his back and shoulder area. Max Vergeldt closed out the final three innings and recorded the pitching victory. Both pitchers only gave up a hit apiece.

The Falls tallied 13 hits over four innings at the plate. Humbert had a pair of doubles, while Ulrich and Jack Bartkowski each added two singles.

I. Falls 4, Hibbing 3

Hibbing 0-0-3 0-0-0 0 — 3 9 2

I. Falls 0-1-0 0-3-0 X — 4 7 1

WP—Wyatt Ulrich

 

 

I. Falls 2, R. Grey 0

R. Grey 0-0-0 0-0-0 0 — 0 2 1

I. Falls 0-0-2 0-0-0 X — 2 5 3

WP—Ben Humbert

 

 

I. Falls 15, R. Orange 0

R. Orange 0-0-0 0-0 — 0 2 0

I. Falls 3-6-6 0-X — 15 13 2

WP—Max Vergeldt