One bad inning kept the International Falls VFW baseball team from coming out of last weekend’s North Sub-District Tournament as the top seed.
Falls VFW head coach Tim Mellstrom summed up the team’s three games last weekend as “16 innings of good baseball and one inning we want to forget about.”
The Falls, which is 23-4 overall this summer, enters the eight-team, double-elimination District Tournament that begins Saturday in the Duluth area as the north’s No. 2 seed.
Falls went 2-1 at the Sub-District Tournament, losing Sunday in the game for the top seed to the host team, Ely.
The Falls held a 4-2 lead going into the seventh inning before Ely rallied for six runs in the final frame to defeat the Falls, 8-4.
“We had a good game, and they were able to rally on us,” Mellstrom said.
Falls took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth and stayed in front until the final inning.
Luke Spilde started on the mound for the Falls and pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits with three walks and a strikeout.
Cole Miggins scattered two hits pitching 1 1/3 innings in relief, before Ben Humbert gave up six runs closing out the game in the seventh.
I. Falls 10, Virginia 0
Humbert had better results on the mound when he started Saturday’s opener and allowed only a hit and a walk while striking out five in Falls’ 10-0 win over Virginia in five innings.
Of Falls’ 12 hits, Taylor DeLack had three. Jack Bartkowski, Jackson Vollom and Miggins each had two with one of Vollom’s hits being a triple.
I. Falls 15, Eveleth 5
Falls erupted for 13 hits in five innings winning its second game of the tournament Saturday via the 10-run rule over Eveleth, 15-5.
DeLack and Spilde both recorded three hits, while Bartkowski, Humbert and Wyatt Ulrich added two apiece.
Ulrich pitched the first two-plus innings, being charged for three runs on six hits with three walks and a strikeout. Miggins pitched in the final three innings, allowing two runs on three hits with two walks.
Four north teams advance
In addition to Ely and the Falls advancing to the District Tournament as the top-two Sub-District teams from the north, Eveleth also qualified as the No. 3 seed while Grand Rapids advances seeded No. 4.
The South Sub-District Tournament's four teams to advance to the District Tournament include top-seeded Ordean, No. 2 seed Hermantown, No. 3-seeded Cloquet and No. 4 seed Marshall.
District Tournament director John Rudolph has informed The Journal that the Falls will play its first game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Wade Stadium in Duluth against Cloquet.
The loser of the first game would play at 3 p.m. Saturday at Wade Stadium against the loser of the game between Ordean and Grand Rapids. The winners of both games would play against each other at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Wade Stadium.
