Ely’s Junior Legion baseball team is picking up right where it left off a year ago, when it qualified for the Division II State Tournament.
Several starters are back in the lineup and Post 248 has opened the season with four wins in five games, including a doubleheader sweep over Rock Ridge Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Field.
Cedar Holman pitched five-and-two-thirds innings of shutout ball and Ely held on for a 3-2 opening game win, while Carson Johnson’s two-run single led to a walkoff 7-6 victory in the nightcap.
Holman and Johnson are two newcomers to the team and both playe high school baseball for North Woods, but longtime head coach Jim Witttrup also welcomed back several key cogs from last year’s state tournament team, including pitchers Hunter Halbakken and Owen Marolt and infielder Drew Johnson.
They’ve combined to give Ely a tremendous start, with Saturday’s 7-6 loss to Blackduck the only blemish thus far.
Ely has had largely strong outings on the mound, with Holman getting the win an Stig Majerus the save in the opener against Rock Ridge.
The hosts scored all the runs they needed in the first, with Majerus and Halbakken knocking in r uns. C arson Johnson and Arturo Cameron, who is hitting a sizzling .667, both had two hits in the game.
Ely erased a 6-3 lead in the second game, scoring four times to pull it out. Hits by Parker Niskala and Holman started the rally and Grant Chittum’s walk loaded the bases. One run scored on a wild pitch, another came in on Henry Fetterer’s infield hit, and Carson Johnson followed with his two-run single to win it. He finished with four runs batted in.
Cameron pitched an inning in relief of starter John Warren to gain the win.
Over the weekend, Ely opened with a 16-1, five-inning thrashing of Thunder Bay to open the z’Up North Realty Classic.
Sean Merriman and Holman teamed up for a five-inning no-hitter, with Merriman notching three strikeouts and Holman four.
Evan Leeson roped two doubles while Marolt added two hits with two runs scored. Cameron scored twice and knocked in two runs, and Majerus had two hits and two runs batted in.
Majerus launched his first career home run in Saturday’s 9-1 triumph over district rival Proctor. It was a two-run blast.
Cameron finished with three hits, two runs scored and two RBI, Halbakken had two hits including a two-run single and Drew Johnson had three hits and two runs scored.
Halbakken, who won nine games during the high school season, went the distance, firing a two-hitter with nine strikeouts. The only run he allowed was unearned.
In a Saturday afternoon tilt, Blackduck slid past Ely 7-6, taking advantage of five errors to score three unearned runs.
Marolt was the tough-luck losing pitcher and gave up seven hits with four strikeouts.
Cameron had three hits, while both Marolt and Leeson finished with two. Chittum added two RBI.
