Apr. 25—BEMIDJI — When the Bemidji High School softball team's bats went cold, Cloquet took advantage.
In a battle of the Lumberjacks, Bemidji scraped two runs across home plate in the third inning on a double steal and a fielder's choice at the BHS softball field. That's where the offensive output halted, forcing BHS to try and close out a low-scoring affair.
But head coach Brad Takkunen had a feeling two runs wouldn't be enough as the game wore on. And, unfortunately for Bemidji, he was right.
Cloquet tied the game in the top of the sixth inning before Rylie Goranson belted a game-deciding home run in the top of the eighth. Goranson's line-drive blast commenced a three-run frame for Cloquet in a 5-2 win.
"We just need to get our offense going," Takkunen said. "We had a few balls hit hard, but we need more of them. I think the biggest tale of that tape is if you get some offense, you can start relaxing a little more instead of going the other way with it when they're finding a way (to get runners on base). We got out of it a few times playing good defense when they could've scored one or two more runs, but trying to maintain that at the high school level is tough.
"They're high school kids. Even the pros make mistakes (defensively), so you know they're coming with high schools here and there. Putting the bat on the ball has been our biggest focus."
Trailing 2-0 with a runner on second base in the sixth inning, Goranson cut Cloquet's deficit in half with an RBI single. Aubrey Perrault tied the game with another single before Aubrey Hanson's unassisted double play at first stranded Perrault at third.
Bemidji's best chance to win the game was in the bottom of the seventh inning.
After Olivia Birt reached base with a one-out single, Karley LaZella and Hanson walked to load the bases. However, Ella Anderson got Clara Sherwood to pop out to end the inning.
It was Anderson's most important recorded out in the circle. She started and finished the game, throwing all eight innings and surrendering just one earned run on four hits and five walks with five strikeouts.
"She was really good at hitting the corners," Takkunen said of Anderson. "She moved the ball around really nice and then she started mixing in more offspeed there at the end. Some of the hitters were looking for faster pitches and maybe got fooled a bit."
Goranson's one-out home run in the eighth inning was followed by three straight singles from Perrault, Anderson and Ali Krivinchuk to stretch the lead to 5-2. Nine Coquet hitters reached base in the final three innings.
"You can tell there's some frustration, but that's exactly what we talked about," Takkunen said. "In a situation where you're struggling a bit as a varsity player, that's when you have to bear down. When you have a chance to make an out, you have to find a way to make an out. That's something that has to be learned as they get more experience. I'm hoping that this is a building experience from a game that could've gone either way."
LaZella started in the circle for BHS again and was tasked with keeping Cloquet's potent hitters at bay. She allowed five earned runs on 11 hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.
"She's doing a good job," Takkunen said. "When you get the ball in the circle, whether it's Karley or Aubrey, there's a lot of pressure. The reality is that, when you make a mistake pitch like we did against their No. 3 hitter and she puts a good swing on a ball, there's nobody else who's going to own that, at least that's what it feels like for them, even though there were seven other innings that happened before that.
"The bottom line is, I can't ask more from her. Does she feel like she can get better? I'm sure she does. But at the same time, she's not the reason we're not winning games. We just need to get more hits."
Bemidji registered just four singles and five walks at the plate in eight innings. As the game wore on and hits became increasingly harder to find, pressure ramped up both offensively and defensively.
"They know what it means, and they also might be fighting it at the plate because they know what it means," Takkunen said of Bemdji's hitters struggling to pad their two-run lead. "At the same time, I really liked the way we made some important strides today. Offensively, we've been working on some things in the batter's box, and we really improved on a couple of those metrics. Now, if we can get past these one or two things that we've been working on and get more contact, it'll put us in a better position.
"You have to learn how to play in a tight environment. When I look at this team, we don't have a lot of varsity experience out here. They're learning. So, hopefully, regarding what this game was and where we're looking to go forward, we can build off this."