While most of their friends were enjoying barbecues and swimming at the lake, the Cloquet VFW baseball team was busy playing five games over a five-day period last week. Cloquet VFW split a pair of games with Hermantown, picked up a win over Esko and then lost a pair of tight games to Superior.
"We're in a bit of a slump right now," said coach Rick Stowell. "We are not throwing enough strikes and we are not making the plays we should make 20 games into the season."
On July 1, Hermantown scored in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Cloquet VFW 5-4 despite three hits for Cloquet's Adam Hanson and two hits each from Tyler Tollerud and August Reynolds.
In their second game against Hermantown, Cloquet got a strongly-pitched game from Tyler McCauley, with Hanson picking up the save, in a 9-4 victory.
Reynolds finished with four hits and Tollerud, Corbin Morse and Hanson all had hits.
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Last Wednesday the Cloquet VFW downed Esko 12-4 behind the strong pitching of Aaron Hafvenstein and the hitting of Joey Singpiel, Peter LaCourse and Reynolds. Singpiel, LaCourse and Reynolds all had two hits.
On Sunday Cloquet lost a pair of games to Superior by scores of 3-2 and 8-7. Singpiel and LaCourse each had two hits in the first game and Connor Stowell had two hits in the second game.
"We lost the double header to Superior and seven of their 11 runs were scored by runners we either walked or were hit by a pitch," mentioned Stowell. "Although we are still averaging eight runs per game, some of our hitters are struggling and it is mainly because of pitch selection. We are taking strikes down the middle and then we are having to hit the pitcher's pitch, oftentimes an off-speed pitch, or a fastball that is too close to take."
Tollerud and Reynolds lead the team in hitting with averages of .531 and .500, respectively, while both Morse and Singpiel are batting above .400.
Michael Acheson, Connor Stowell, McCauley, LaCourse and Hanson are all batting above .300 for the season.
"With vacations and other obligations we are having to move kids around and that is part of the problem as well," commented Stowell. "The kids are enjoying playing positions they normally don't play, so that is good. Come playoff time we'll have some answers and we'll be ready to play."
