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Sweep comes with a price as top hitter Berglund goes down
The Vermilion Ironhawks won four straight games against rival Mesabi last weekend, but the Northern Division community college baseball sweep came with a cost.
Nick Berglund, the Ironhawks’ leading hitter, suffered a potentially season- ending injury during the opening game of the series. Yet despite the centerfielder’s absence, Vermilion dominated the four-game set and put itself in the thick of the division race.
After 8-6 and 15-1 wins on Saturday, the Ironhawks kept on rolling Sunday and prevailed 14-4 and 4-1.
Vermilion, now 4-2 in the division and 13-14 overall, had stellar pitching performances from freshmen Jo Jo Taverna, Andrew Melgeorge and Andrew Ritter, and a huge weekend at the plate from freshman third baseman Charlie Mohr.
Mohr, who hails from Forest Lake, had both two and three-run home runs in Sunday’s opening game and finished the series with six hits, including four for extra bases, with seven runs scored and 10 runs batted in.
Freshman catcher Martin Cubillan was also six-for-11 for the weekend with seven runs scored.
Vermilion also got a big boost on the mound from Taverna, who stopped the bleeding in the opening game of the series and gained the pitching win with five-andtwo- thirds innings of relief. He struck out eight and gave up just one run as his team rallied to gain the win.
Melgeorge, a lefty from Superior, went the distance in Sunday’s nightcap and fired a five-hitter with eight strikeouts.
Ritter helped Vermilion close out the sweep in Sunday’s finale. The South St. Paul graduate worked six innings, did not give up an earned run and recorded six strikeouts on the way to victory.
Yet despite the many individual highlights, Vermilion’s postseason hopes may have tumbled when Berglund pulled a hamstring.
At the time of the injury, the sophomore from Becker was hitting a team-best .451 with two home runs, 19 runs batted in, 29 runs scored and 16 stolen bases.
“I don’t know if we can even describe what a hit that is to lose Nick,” said Vermilion Head Coach Tom Coombe. “He had already put up some amazing numbers and was the sparkplug of our offense in many ways. On top of that he’s probably the best centerfielder in our division and a real leader on our team. He was on his way to an all-region season and we are going to miss his presence in our lineup and on the field.”
Mohr helped fill some of the void on offense with his big series against Mesabi, while Cubillan is hitting a blistering .386 with two home runs and 23 RBI.
Ritter (.347) and TJ Frein (.325) are helping to pick up the slack, and Frein had three extra-base hits in Saturday’s second game.
Outfielder Griffin Stiel also raised his average to .317 and fellow freshman Cole Smith had a clutch two-run single that helped clinch the series finale.
Dylan Spears, a freshman from San Antonio, added two doubles and four RBI as Vermilion drilled Mesabi in five innings to kick off Sunday’s action at Aurora.
Berglund was Vermilion’s only sophomore starter, and the Ironhawks will now lean almost entirely on freshmen as it looks to return to regional playoff action after missing the postseason in 2024.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s on the mound or at the plate, we are going to need freshmen to produce if we are going to put together a run to get into the playoffs,” said Coombe.
A key series comes this weekend, with four games against Hibbing, which is 2-6 after its first eight division matchups.
The Ironhawks are currently in third place in the Northern Division and the top-three finishers in the sixteam circuit will qualify for the regional playoffs.
