AURORA- The Ely Timberwolves ran out of playoff magic at the worst possible time on Tuesday, as Deer River scored three runs in their last at-bat to upend the Wolves 5-4 and bounce them out of the sectional baseball tournament.
After a pair of first-inning Ely errors allowed Deer River to go on top 1-0 in the first, the Wolves buckled down, bending but not breaking over the next three innings. Ely starter Drew Marolt chalked up a pair of strikeouts in the bottom of the second to retire the side.
The Warriors threatened in the third after leadoff hitter Drew Mann walked and then reached third when a pickoff attempt to first went awry. Marolt fielded a dribbler toward third and threw to first for an out, freezing the runner at third. The Warriors worked Marolt for another walk, but Ely catcher Ben Leeson gunned that runner down trying to steal second for the second out of the inning. Marolt caught the next batter looking on a called third strike to get the Wolves out of the jam.
Deer River’s leadoff hitter in the fourth, Kayden Gotchie, reached on a sharp infield single and then beat the throw to second on a bunt by Colton Hemphill. Marolt got the next batter to ground out, moving the runners to second and third with one out. The Warriors’ Preston Reed went down on strikes, then Marolt got Jaxon Lind to chase a high pitch out of the strike zone for the third out of the inning as Deer River squandered a golden opportunity.
Deer River finally cashed in again in the fifth, with Zach Mann rapping an infiled single and advancing to second on the sacrifice bunt from Ben Storlie. Mann moved to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a Gotchie single to right, putting the Warriors up 2-0.
Ely had baserunners in each of the first five innings and hadn’t scored, but that dry streak came to an end in the top of the sixth. Deegan Richards drew a lead-off walk and moved to second when Huter Halbakken reached on an error by the Warriors’ shortstop. Jack Davies stepped in as a pinch hitter and laid down a perfectly placed soft sacrifice bunt to move the runners over. Tyde Brecke came in as a pinch runner for Halbakken with two outs, and Sam Leeson drew a walk to load the bases. That set the stage for Caid Chittum, who scorched a single up the middle to plate two runs and tie the game 2-2. The Wolves took their first and only lead of the game, 4-2, when Ben Leeson stepped up and stroked a two-RBI single to left-center field.
After giving up a single to start the bottom of the sixth, pitcher Marolt handed the ball over to reliver Chittum. After a strange double play in which the Deer River batter never left the batter’s box after hitting the ball, Chittum got a strikeout to end the inning.
The Wolves had a chance to add to their lead in the top of the seventh when Elliot Levens scorched a grounder under the glove of the shortstop to put the leadoff batter aboard. Levens was erased at second on a force, with Richards reaching base on the fielder’s choice. But Richards got picked off by reliever Storlie at first for the second out of the inning, Ely got their third baserunner of the inning when Owen Marolt stroked a single to right field, and he moved to second on a passed ball. Halbakken hit a grounder to third that should have been an easy third out at first, but the third baseman inexplicably threw to second instead, which gave Ely two on with two out. Zander Lislegard loaded the bases for the Wolves with a grounder that was bobbled by the shortstop. But Sam Leeson grounded out to end the Wolves’ threat, and their inability to score would come back to haunt them in the bottom of the inning.
The Warriors quickly loaded the bases with a leadoff single and a pair of walks. Chittum retired the next batter on an automatic infield fly out, then got a huge strikeout on Gotchie. A wild pitch hit Deer River’s Hemphill in the head, bringing in a run and leaving the bases loaded for Noah Lien. With two outs and needing a hit to extend the season, Lien delivered, ripping a shot to centerfield that scored the winning runs in the 5-4 Deer River win.
While Ely Head Coach Frank Ivancich praised his team’s tenacious play, he also acknowledged that they’d given Deer River one too many chances.
“The first few innings we were in and out of jams, and I don’t know how the heck they got out of some of those situations,” Ivancich said. “But when you play enough baseball you just know that there’s going to come a time when someone’s just going to get a clutch base hit, and they did. We just put a couple too many guys on with free passes and you can’t do that.”
Ivancich gave kudos to Marolt for his work on the mound, noting that he was returning for the first time in three weeks after having some elbow issues.
“For him to come out and compete like that, yeah, he threw really well,” Ivancich said. “It was great for him to come back and he looked really good today.”
And while Ivancich said the team reached its goal of making the final four in the tournament, it was clear that he’d have liked to have had at least one more game to play.
“Overall we had a good season, although obviously this wasn’t the outcome we wanted,” he said. “It would have been nice to play another game. We’ve kind of run a roller coaster all year long, and this was kind of indicative of that a little bit. You just can’t give a team like that chances at this stage of the game, and we did, just one too many, and that was it for us.”