The season came to an end Saturday afternoon at Wade Stadium in Duluth for International Falls’ VFW baseball team.
The Falls, which entered the eight-team, double-elimination District 8 Tournament as the No. 2 seed from the North Sub-District, lost a pair of games that afternoon where the Northwoods League’s Duluth Huskies play their home games.
“It’s a nice facility — we’ve got a nice grandstand behind us here,” said Falls VFW head coach Tim Mellstrom. “I wish we could have put on a better show, but that’s kind of the way it goes sometimes.”
Falls opened the tournament with a 10-6 loss to the South Sub-District’s No. 3 seed, Cloquet.
The beginning of the game showed signs of promise for the Falls when starting pitcher Ben Humbert retired the first three batters.
When Falls batted in bottom of the first, Taylor DeLack and Humbert both singled. Jackson Vollom then walked to load the bases with two outs, but no one scored when Cole Miggins flew out for the final out.
“Early in the game we had the bases loaded and weren’t able to get any of those runs in, and that I think kind of set the tone for the rest of the way,” Mellstrom said.
Humbert — who recorded a perfect game, another no-hitter and a one-hitter this season — ran into control problems pitching in the second inning when he faced all nine Cloquet batters.
He gave up a lead-off single to Cloquet shortstop Brandon Conklin, who scored the game’s first run after three wild pitches.
Four walks and a hit later, Cloquet held a 3-0 lead.
After Falls left two more runners on base in the second inning, Cloquet added two more runs in the top of the third.
Humbert got Travis Bartlett to strike out for the second time, but Bartlett reached first when the third strike got past Falls catcher Jack Mellstrom.
Nate O’Hara drove in Bartlett on a single and, after Humbert was relieved by Wyatt Ulrich with two outs, later scored to give Cloquet a 5-0 lead.
Ulrich scored Falls’ first run after a lead-off single in the bottom of the fifth. DeLack bunted Ulrich to second on a sacrifice. Ulrich advanced to third on a wild pitch and reached home plate on a sacrifice fly by Humbert to cut Cloquet’s lead to 5-1.
Cloquet’s offense then erupted in the top of the sixth for five runs on five hits off of Ulrich to lead 10-1.
Falls was able to chase Cloquet starter Mason Brenner off the mound in the bottom of the sixth by waging a five-run comeback.
Brenner gave up two hits, three walks and hit a batter in the inning before being relieved by Nick Niemi, who walked two more batters before Conklin came in to pitch and recorded the final two outs with Falls trailing by four and leaving the bases loaded.
“We battled back, which this group likes to do...,” Tim Mellstrom said. “Unfortunately, the hole was dug a little too deep for us to get out of.”
After neither team scored nor recorded a hit in the final inning, Cloquet advanced to the winners’ bracket and won again later in the day against the North’s No. 4 seed, Grand Rapids.
Ordean 11, I. Falls 2
The South’s No. 1 seed, Duluth Ordean, ended up in the losers’ bracket game against the Falls after having lost the opening tournament game against Grand Rapids.
The Falls could only muster six hits off of Jake Turner, who pitched a complete game as Ordean recorded 11 hits and eliminated Falls from the tournament with an 11-2 victory.
“I’ll give credit to the Duluth (Ordean) pitcher,” Tim Mellstrom said. “He pitched a heck of a game, and he’s a good pitcher. We saw him last year at the state tournament in (Junior) Little League.”
Luke Spilde started on the mound for the Falls. He gave up three runs on three hits in the opening inning as Ordean took an early 3-0 lead.
Vollom accounted for both of Falls’ runs. He led off with a walk in the top of the second and advanced to third on a double by Miggins, before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Clay Bergstrom to cut Ordean’s lead to 3-1.
After Ordean tallied another run in the bottom of the third to pull ahead by three, Vollom scored in the top of the fourth. He advanced to third on a fielding error in right field and then reached home on a wild pitch.
Spilde left the mound after giving up two more runs on three hits in the bottom of the fourth.
Jack Mellstrom came in to pitch for the Falls in the fifth inning when he gave up five runs on five hits.
“They didn’t hit the ball any harder,” Tim Mellstrom said. “It was a lot of bloopers, a lot of bleeders.”
Despite being eliminated in the first two games of the District Tournament, Tim Mellstrom said the Falls had a good season with an overall record of 23-6.
“It was a good performance this season,” he said. “Unfortunately, it ended this way, and that’s a tough break.”
Game one
Cloquet 10, I. Falls 6
Cloquet 0-3-2 0-0-5 0 — 10
I. Falls 0-0-0 0-1-5 0 — 6
Game two
Ordean 11, I. Falls 2
I. Falls 0-1-0 0-1-0 0 — 2
Ordean 3-0-1 2-5-0 X — 11
