The Cloquet American Legion baseball team has upgraded their schedule and right now they are finding out just how difficult that schedule can be.
In a three-day span last week, Cloquet faced Virginia, Lakeville North, River Falls, Edina and Grand Rapids. Lakeville North is one of the top-ranked teams in the state.
On Thursday, Cloquet lost 5-4 to Virginia despite the fact that Adam Boleman had three of Cloquet's hits against Montreal Canadian draftee Scott Kishel, but it wasn't enough as Virginia had nine hits on Cloquet pitchers Dedric Clark, Peter Allen and Thomas Rogers.
Cloquet then opened play in the Grand Rapids Tournament with a 16-9 loss to Lakeville North.
"They were big and strong and you could see why they were ranked," commented Steve Jezierski. "Physically they were a very mature team."
ADVERTISEMENT
Lakeville North pounded out 20 hits against Bryan Anderson and Jon Becker.
"Bryan pitched pretty well for a few innings," mentioned Jezierski. "Once they started hitting the ball, they really got on a roll."
Austin Hatch rapped out three hits, while Thomas Rogers, Matt Ellison, Adam Boleman and Peter Allen all smacked out a pair of hits in Cloquet's 14-hit attack.
Game two saw Cloquet down River Falls 9-1 behind the complete game pitching of Thomas Jezierski. Adam Boleman had three hits, Tyler Tollerud, Austin Hatch and Jezierski each added a pair of hits as Cloquet smacked out 13 hits in the game.
In game three, Cloquet fell 9-0 to Edina while mustering up just four hits. Meanwhile, Edina bashed out 15 hits against Cloquet lefty Peter Allen and relief pitcher Tyler Tollerud.
In a wonderfully-played final game, Cloquet fell 2-1 in nine innings to Grand Rapids as Thomas Rogers pitched the complete game loss for Cloquet.
Cloquet only managed two hits, but Adam Boleman led off with a double in the first inning and later scored on an Austin Hatch ground out against Rapids ace pitcher Gabe Wood.
