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The Vermilion Ironhawks won their season-ending series, closed the regular season with a sweep and even reached the 20-win mark for a second straight year.
But as the regional playoffs began this week in St. Cloud, the community college baseball team was on the outside looking in.
That’s because Hibbing caught Vermilion on the final day of the regular season and tied the Ironhawks with 11 division victories and the third spot in the six-team Northern Division.
And because of a tiebreaker, it’s the Cardinals who move on and Vermilion’s season is done, despite a 2022 record.
Even more gut-wrenching for the Ironhawks was how it happened. As Vermilion closed out a 6-0 victory at Rainy River in Sunday’s regular season finale, Hibbing scored eight runs in the top of the seventh - including seven with two out - to stun Mesabi 12-8 and tie the Ironhawks for the third spot.
“We did what we had to do on Sunday, but Hibbing just got it done also and found a way to win that game,” said Vermilion Head Coach Tom Coombe. “Give them credit. They had to sweep and they did, and we lost a few early on in the division season that came back to haunt us.”
Vermilion took three of four games from Rainy River over the weekend, with freshman Andrew Ritter firing a complete game, five-hit shutout in Sunday’s finale. The freshman from South St. Paul gained his fifth win of the season and notched five strikeouts.
Nobody swung a hotter bat all weekend then freshman Martin Cubillan, who homered in Sunday’s 117, first-game win and won MCAC Northern Division Player of the Week honors by going nine-for-16 for the season with two doubles, two home runs, 10 runs batted in and eight runs scored.
Cubillan, who hails from St. Paul by way of Venezuela, finished the season with a .409 batting average, five home runs and a division- leading 45 runs batted in.
Cubillan’s homer, as well as a three-run blast by freshman Dylan Coello lifted Vermilion to an 11-7 win in Sunday’s first game.
In the game, Cubillan had four runs batted in, all on a second-inning grand slam, while leadoff man TJ Frein scored three times and had two hits. Sophomore Nick Berglund added two hits and two runs scored, and Charlie Mohr singled in a run.
Vermilion patched it together on the mound, with Jo Jo Taverna working until the fourth, and reliever Dylan Schroeder going a season- long, three-and-one-third innings before giving way to Griffin Stiel, who recorded his first save.
• On Saturday, Vermilion erased a 12-2 deficit and came back to stun Rainy River 19-13.
Cubillan’s bases-clearing double was the highlight of a nine-run fourth inning, and Ritter’s two-run homer in the fifth tied the game at 13.
The Ironhawks scored six runs in the sixth to pull away.
Ritter finished with three hits, three runs scored and three RBI, as did Cubillan.
Mohr and Stiel both chipped in with two hit and two RBI, and Berglund and Coello scored two runs each.
Starting pitcher Andrew Melgeorge worked until the fourth, with Schroeder, Jerron Turney and Dylan Spears all working in relief before giving way to Taverna, who got a seventh-inning save.
Rainy River took the nightcap 8-5 despite a tworun home run by Cubillan.
Berglund scored twice, Ritter drove in two runs and Coello wound up with two hits for the Ironhawks, who at times started as many as nine freshmen.
Berglund, a sophomore from Becker who hit a teambest .409, was the only regular sophomore starter.
“There’s no doubt we’ll have a talented nucleus back next season,” said Coombe. “If we can add a little more pitching and build some more depth, we can be a real contender in 2026.”
