Journal Staff Report
Limiting Lake Park to two runs wasn’t enough when International Falls couldn’t score in Saturday’s Junior League state championship game at Cloquet.
“We just didn’t hit in the championship,” said Falls head coach Jay Bartkowski.
Off Falls’ three hits, Ben Humbert recorded two of them with Max Vergeldt adding the other one.
Falls’ runners could get no closer than halfway home as no runner advanced to third.
Wyatt Ulrich started on the mound and picked up the loss pitching 5 1/3 innings. Humbert pitched the final 1 2/3 innings in relief.
Lake Park, which represents the Duluth area, advances to the Junior League Central Region Tournament beginning this weekend in Indiana, while the season ends for the Falls, which qualified for the state tournament after winning the district tournament it hosted July 14-16.
“(It was) a great season and a great group of guys,” Bartkowski said.
In contrast to Saturday’s 2-0 defensive battle, which Bartkowski called “a sharp, crisp game,” Falls and Lake Park combined for 19 runs in Wednesday’s opening game of round-robin play, which Lake Park won, 10-9.
Falls earned the three-team tournament’s No. 2 seed by having trounced Plymouth/ New Hope, 17-3, in Thursday’s round-robin game. Falls broke open a two-run lead with a dozen runs in the sixth inning.
Humbert paced Falls’ offense with four hits, including a home run. Jakob Eide recorded three hits, while Ulrich, Jack Bartkowski, Kevin Kilbride, Rylan Henrickson and Cole Miggins added two hits apiece.
Plymouth/New Hope ended up with the No. 3 seed and faced Falls again Saturday morning in the contest to advance to the title game against No. 1-seeded Lake Park.
Falls once again defeated Plymouth/New Hope in similar fashion, 17-5, in six innings. Jay Bartkowski said errors and walks given up by Plymouth/New Hope were key to the outcome of that game.
Vollom and Eide each had two hits for the Falls. Vollom also pitched the first 4 1/3 innings, before Humbert came in for the final 1 2/3 innings in relief.
