Esko VFW coach Jeff Emanuel certainly made sure his team had a tough schedule this summer. In the last week alone, Esko has had to face the likes of Cloquet, Duluth East and Hermantown.
"We are 1-5 in the last six games against Hermantown, Cloquet and East," mentioned Emanuel. "We split with Hermantown and then got swept by Cloquet and East. Our record is currently 8-8, but we are on a five-game losing streak."
Emanuel has been fortunate, however, to have a strong pitching staff that can go four to five players deep.
"We have been strong all summer," commented Emanuel. "Led by Matt Tengesdal, Jake Toman, Mitch Reuer and Dan Linder, these guys have tallied a lot of innings to date. In relief Jordan Balow has thrown some good stuff."
Unfortunately the offense has not been consistent for Esko and they are looking to change that as the season winds down.
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"Our hitting has been sporadic," stated Emanuel. "We are having a tough time driving in runners in scoring position and we have not had many clutch at-bats as of late. We are leaving a lot of runners in scoring position with less than two outs."
Leading the hitters this summer have been Jamie Stokes, Ryan Vang, Niko Michaelson and Jake Olson.
"I feel our team can be very, very good and one of the top teams in the sub-districts when clicking on all cylinders," explained Emanuel. "I think the boys have to go out there and have some fun, enjoy the game and just play ball. Every team goes through their ups and downs, but what makes a good team and good ball player is battling through the down times. That is what we need to do as a team right now."
It will be a busy week this week as Esko takes on Proctor, Cloquet and Central.
On Monday, the Esko VFW was swept by Duluth East 8-6 and 11-1.
In game one on Monday, Stokes, Michaelson, Olson and Vang all recorded two hits while Lind tossed four strong innings.
Game two action saw Toman pitch, but the Esko defense was less than stellar as they gave up nine runs in the third inning, seven of those runs were unearned. Toman also had the only RBI in the game with a triple in the first inning.
Last Tuesday, Esko was swept by Cloquet 5-1 and 4-1 as Thomas Jezierski and Dedric Clark picked up pitching wins for Cloquet.
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Jamie Stokes collected two hits for Esko in the game one loss.
