REGIONAL- In a marathon 7A sectional tournament game last Thursday where both teams refused to give in, North Woods was the team that finally cracked, giving up a two-out 12th inning single to Mt. Iron-Buhl in a 12-11 loss that knocked North Woods out of the tourney.
The tenth-seeded Grizzlies were looking for their second upset win of the tournament against the sixth-seeded Rangers, having dispatched No. 7 Cromwell-Wright 11-9 in the opening round. A loss to No. 2 Cherry dropped North Woods into the elimination bracket, while MIB ended up in the second-chance group with a 20-10 loss to No. 3 Silver Bay.
The Grizzlies lost a pair of regular-season games to MIB but put the Rangers on notice immediately that they were in it to win it with a four-run outburst in the top of the first. Zoey Burckhardt smashed a double that moved Nevada Gauthier to third, and Gauthier stole home for the Grizzlies’ first run. Emarie Gibson singled to send Burckhardt to third, and a bunt single by Evalyn Thiel scored Burckhardt. Rory Bundy drew a walk to load the bases for Kayla Dougherty, who nailed a hard shot to third to score Gibson. With the bases still loaded, Brynn Chosa flipped a 1-2 count into a walk with Thiel scoring to put North Woods up 4-0.
With the score 5-2 heading into the bottom of the third, MIB turned the tables on the Grizzlies with a six-run burst to take an 8-5 lead. But North Woods wasted no time in retaliating, plating three runs in the top of the fourth, getting RBI singles from Gibson and Bundy and an RBI double from Thiel.
Tied 8-8, Gibson rapped another single to start things off in the top of the sixth, and scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice grounder by Bundy.
Tied again at 9-9 going into the seventh and final inning of regulation, North Woods positioned themselves for the upset with an RBI triple by Burckhardt and a sacrifice fly by Kruse for an 11-9 edge.
But MIB sent the game into extra innings after Natalie Bergman tagged North Woods starter Addison Burckhardt for a first-pitch leadoff home run and scratched across another run and stave off elimination.
It was a pitchers and fielders game from there until the top of the 12th, when North Woods mounted a serious threat. Gauthier slammed a one-out double and advanced to third on a single by Zoey Burckhardt. Kruse singled on a bunt to load the bases for Gibson, but the opportunity was lost when Gibson lined out into a double play.
Addison Burckhardt notched a pair of strikeouts to start the bottom of the 12th, but with a runner on third and down to her last strike, Kylee Renzaglia torpedoed the Grizzlies’ season with an RBI single for the 12-11 Rangers win.
North Woods finished the season at 6-14, with half of those wins coming in the final six games of the season.