AURORA— A dramatic seventh-inning rally over Barnum here on Tuesday, left the Timberwolves flying high during the first two games of double elimination in the Section 7A tournament.
Ely made it to the winner’s bracket contest after crushing Littlefork-Big Falls 10-0 earlier in the day.
In the nightcap, the Bombers had held Ely scoreless through five innings and were up 4-0 as the sixth got underway. Occasional rain showers and high winds plagued both teams throughout the contest, but Ely errors had proved more costly up to that point. But the Ely bats, which had been held in check by Bombers’ pitching, began to come alive in the final two innings. In the sixth, senior Mason Davis and juniors Preston Hines and Joey Bianco all had hits as Ely added two runs to the board to cut the Barnum lead in half. The Bombers added two more runs on a couple of Ely errors in the top of the seventh, taking what seemed to be an insurmountable lead into the bottom of the final frame.
But that’s when Ely blew it open with a five-run scoring blitz. A critical Barnum error allowed Ely junior Erron Anderson to reach first. Then Davis ripped a single, followed by a walk to load the bases. Ely junior Logan Loe was hit by a pitch to score Anderson, who was sitting at third. Senior Eddie Prijatel drew yet another walk, cutting the Barnum lead to 6-4. Senior Jacob Towley, who came in as a pinch hitter, reached on an error, driving in two more runs to tie the game. The Bombers intentionally walked Bianco, who has been hot at the plate all season, to reload the bases. But that left Chittum, another tough customer for pitchers, and when he ripped a sacrifice fly, it easily drove in the winning run, completing a remarkable comeback for a walk-off win.
The Wolves preceded their exciting finish with an easy, 10-0 rout over the Vikings in a game that was ten-runned in the fifth. Davis threw four innings of one-hit ball, striking out five, to notch the win. Bianco and sophomore Deegan Richards led the Wolves at the plate, with two hits apiece. Richards ended up with four RBIs and a triple, while Bianco added a double and a triple.
The Wolves were slated to be back in action on Thursday, when they’ll face Cherry at 2 p.m. in Aurora. A victory will advance Ely to the semi-finals set for next Tuesday.