AURORA- With six starters gone from last year’s 7A Sectional tourney runner-up squad, the North Woods baseball team will be looking to plug a few holes this season as they round into form.
That was apparent early on in the first game of the season on Saturday at Mesabi East, where the Giants took command early and coasted to a 13-2 win.
While cancellations and postponements have made a shambles of early season baseball schedules due to snow, Mesabi East’s artificial turf field was ready for play, although maintenance workers were still blowing snow through the outfield fence just minutes before game time.
Mesabi East rocked North Woods starter Louis Panichi for three runs in the first and five runs in second, aided by some Grizzlies miscues, and reliever Ben Kruse surrendered an inside-the-park home run and five runs total in the third before finding the groove and retiring the side in the fourth on two grounders and a strike-out.
Through three innings only nine North Woods batters had stepped to the plate, but the Grizzlies managed to manufacture a pair of runs in the top of the fourth. Panichi walked and then reached third on a double by Kruse. Jake Panichi rapped a bouncer to third and Louis Panichi beat the throw home for the Grizzlies’ first run of the season. Kruse motored to third on the play, then scored on a sharp infield shot by Tate Cly. The Grizzlies had a shot to extend the game in their fifth at-bat but came up empty, giving the Giants the run-shortened 13-2 victory. Mesabi East racked up 11 hits in four innings, while the Grizzlies managed just two.
“We have three returners and a lot of young kids and a couple of juniors and seniors came out this year and haven’t played for a while, so, we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Head Coach Jeff Smerud said. “We’re going to be OK, we’ve just got to find the right pieces and put them in the right spots and get outside on the field and get some real practice time.”
Smerud said he saw some good things happening for the Grizzlies in the field.
“You have to give Mesabi East credit. They hit the ball hard and hit the gaps. It’s pretty easy when you have four or five doubles. But we didn’t make many defensive mistakes, and we’ll be fine. We told them at the start of practices that it doesn’t matter where you start, it’s how you finish. Now we have a baseline and we can go from there. It’s just a totally different team than we’ve had out there the last two years.”
Most of all, both teams appeared to be happy to be playing ball again.
“We’ve been stuck in the gym like everybody else in northern Minnesota,” Smerud said. “We got outside yesterday to catch some fly balls and then came out today to play a game. It’s just nice to be out on a complex like this where it’s nice and warm and the kids are happy and smiling.”