Hibbing 1 takes down Rock Ridge 1 in Iron Range Baseball playoffs

“We played a pretty-good game in the field,” Schweiberger said. “That’s the key for us, playing a tight, defensive game. Our pitcher was throwing strikes. Blake (Kolden) did an excellent job, and he had the support behind him.

“Overall, it was a good effort.”

Kolden did run into a little trouble in the first inning as Jacob Coombe reached on an error and Kale Johnson walked, but Kolden got two strikeouts and a groundout to end the possible threat.

That’s when Hibbing took over by scoring two runs in the bottom of the first.

Ethan Sundvall hit an RBI triple, then he scored on a single by Gavin Schweiberger.

“Anytime you get runners on and hold them, that’s going to be a momentum changer,” Schweiberger said. “We got our bats moving. We had some nice hits. Our key players were hitting the ball, getting on base and knocking runs in.”

The only other time Kolden got into trouble was the third as Coombe reached third after a single by Kale Johnson. Chaulker Hoover was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Kolden grabbed a hot shot up the middle to end the threat.

Hibbing 1 was able to add to its lead in the second as Kaden Sweeney hit an RBI single, followed by a two-run single off the bat of Gavin Lamphere.

In the third, Hibbing 1 added three more runs, one on an RBI single by Aiden Davey, and two more on Rock Ridge 1 errors.

“Our goal is to put runs up in every inning,” Schweiberger said. “We want to get at least one. We don’t want any goose eggs up there in any innings. If we do that, we’ll do just fine in the future.”

In the fourth inning, Hibbing 1 added four more runs as Landon Krampotich had an RBI single; Kolden an RBI double; and Max Hughes a two-run single.

That put the game out of reach and made the 10-run rule possible.

“It was nice to get that cushion,” Schweiberger said. “You have to make sure that you can keep adding to it, so you don’t go stagnant. We wanted to get into that lead, so we could keep on rolling forward.”

Kolden would toss five innings of one-hit ball. He struck out six and walked four, but all in all, Hibbing 1’s defensive performance was solid.

“I liked our effort on defense,” Schweiberger said. “We had a couple of nice grabs. Kaden made a heck of a play at short. We communicated. Everybody knew what to do when the ball was hit.”

Kale Johnson started for Rock Ridge 1, tossing 2 2/3 innings. He allowed six hits and walked three. Logan Haverkamp tossed 11/3 innings, giving up five hits. He struck out two and walked one.

Rock Ridge 1 coach Jeff Marolt said his pitchers threw a fine game.

“We didn’t show up defensively,” Torrel said. “We had too many mental mistakes, too many errors. Our pitchers threw strikes, so I was proud of them for that. That’s what we needed to do to give ourselves a chance.

“We gave them way too many unearned runs.”

Getting only one hit didn’t help matters at all.

“We needed some timely hitting,” Marolt said. “We had runners in scoring position, but we couldn’t get them across the plate. We didn’t put the ball in play.”

Hibbing 1 was scheduled to play Ely at 5:30 p.m. Saturday. The game wasn’t compeleted when this edition of the Mesabi Tribune went to press.