By Jeff Asmussen
The Silver Bay 14U girls softball team won the overall gold championship in the Cloquet tournament, June 23-25. Former Twins’ manager Tom Kelly’s mantras was “if you pitch and play defense you give yourself a chance,” and that proved true for the Mariners.
The Mariners opened the tournament with a 19-0 win over International Falls with Berkley Hoff pitching a no hitter. The Mariners girls followed that up with a 12-0 win over Cloquet with Kallie Anderson, a player from Grand Marais who plays for the Mariners in the summer, also pitching a no hitter. The Mariners then defeated one of their rivals, Superior, 7-2 behind Madison Ollman’s pitching and some great defense.
In the championship game the Mariners trailed Hibbing 2-1 and Hibbing had loaded the bases with only one out. Anderson was put in to relieve Hoff at pitching. It was at that point catcher Kinley Nelson and first baseman Ollman pulled off the play of the tournament. A Hibbing runner on first base was taking an aggresive lead. Nelson picked her off and the runner on third broke for home. Ollman pivoted and fired a bullet back to Nelson who slapped the tag down to complete the double play, ending Hibbing’s turn at bat.
Callie Ernest came up to bat the next inning and hit a missle to the fence. She came all the way around to tie the game at two each. Ollman came up to bat in the bottom of the last inning and delivered a two run single to award the Mariners the championship game, 4-2.
The Mariner outfield made several great catches over the weekend. Other team members are Anna Klemmer, Natalee Walker, Karly Nelson, Mikaela Lindgren, Ella Thronson, Emma Wilson, Lilly Ernest, and Hayden Ernest. Head coach is Mike Hoff.
