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Seventh inning stunners
After big rally to stay alive, Ely goes down in similar fashion in 7A
In a way, the Ely Timberwolves suffered the bitter taste of their own medicine Tuesday afternoon at Aurora.
Five days after they pulled off a seventh-inning comeback to oust Silver Bay from the Section 7A high school baseball tournament, the Timberwolves fell victim to a seventh-inning rally by Deer River.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Warriors scored three ties - all with two outs - and stunned the Wolves 5-4.
A bases-loaded hit by pitch closed the gap to 4-3, and a seeing-eye base hit up the middle plated two more runs and ended Ely’s season.
The Wolves, who finished 12-12, had rallied from a 12-6 deficit and scored three times in the sixth and four in the seventh to beat Silver Bay and stay alive in a May 30 clash at South Ridge.
The Wolves fell behind against Deer River in Tuesday’s elimination game, but starting pitcher Drew Marolt worked into and out of jams and kept his team close.
It was 2-0 when Ely erupted in the top of the sixth.
First Caid Chittum’s base hit up the middle tied the game, and fellow junior Ben Leeson followed with a twoout singe to left and the Wolves took a 4-2 lead.
Ely, which stranded 12 runners and had another erased on the base paths, left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh and gave the Warriors an opportunity.
Chittum recorded two outs in the seventh but the third proved elusive, and Deer River scored three times to advance.
Marolt struck out eight and gave up three hits in five-and-one-third innings of work, with Chittum yielding two hits and fanning two in relief.
At the plate, Chittum ripped three hits including a double while Leeson had three hits and freshman Owen Marolt finished with two.
Deer River was eliminated later in the day by South Ridge, which set up a 7A title game rematch on Thursday, at Rock Ridge.
The loss ended an up-anddown year for the Wolves, who battled injuries and inconsistency yet still reached the final four in the section for the eighth time in the last 10 seasons.
• Trailing by six runs, the Wolves pulled off their biggest comeback of the year to beat Silver Bay for the second time in three days and stay alive in the postseason.
A two-run double by Deegan Richards scored the tying and go-ahead runs in the seventh, and the Wolves also capitalized on five straight walks issued by Mariner pitchers to start the seventh.
Richards had three hits for the Wolves, as did senior Sam Leeson.
Another senior, Elliot Levens, knocked in three runs while Owen Marolt added two hits and two runs batted in.
Ben Leeson scored four times and drove in two, and Chittum crossed home plate three times and had a run-scoring double.
Owen Marolt earned the pitching victory, working three-and-two-thirds innings in relief of Chittum and giving up three hits and two earned runs The Wolves were knocked into the elimination round by South Ridge, which scored a 10-0, five-inning win earlier the same day.
Ely managed just three hits - by Chittum, Hunter Halbakken and Ben Leeson.
