Sports

(EDITOR’S NOTE: this week the Echo previews Ely’s baseball and softball teams. Track to be featured next week)

by Tom Coombe -

SNOWFLAKES didn’t stop the VCC baseball team from playing last weekend. Photo by Sylvia Linkert.

For the first time in two years, Vermilion Community College is fielding a women’s softball team.
The Ironwomen are back on the field after a one-year hiatus, with a new head coach and an almost entirely new roster.
Justin Kosik, who also serves as head football coach at VCC, has taken the reins of a softball program that went dark in 2018 because of a lack of participation.
That shouldn’t be a problem in 2019, with a dozen athletes out for the squad, which opened its season in late-March with three nonconference games at the Rosemount Dome, south of the Twin Cities.
Shawna Butler, a former Ely Timberwolf, is one of the newcomers to the VCC lineup while the only holdover from the 2017 team is first baseman/outfielder Lynn Engler.
Others on the team are Ely graduate Maggie Isbell, as well as Jade Evans, Brittany Packer, Meghan Ferrell, Jessica Emmans, Hannah Larson, Ashley Goley, Lauren Huchel, Hanna Peitso and Morgan Schubert.

by Tom Coombe
Patrick Vanderbeek will no longer wear an Ely Timberwolves jersey, but his high school basketball career isn’t quite over yet.
Vanderbeek, who set three-point shooting records during a stellar varsity career in Ely, has been selected to play in the Iron Range Engineering All-Star Games, set for Friday, April 5 at Virginia.
Vanderbeek is one of 32 area seniors who will form four teams for the doubleheader, which will take place on the campus of Mesabi Community College.
Players from Grand Rapids, Greenway, Cloquet, Mt. Iron-Buhl, Crosby-Ironton, Lakeview Christian and state Class A runner-up North Woods will be on Vanderbeek’s team, which takes tot the court at 6 p.m.
They’ll match up against players from Hibbing, Proctor, Cromwell, Cook County, Deer River, Virginia, Mt. Iron-Buhl and Lakeview Christian.

For all but about 20 minutes, the Vermilion Ironmen had a near-perfect day of baseball.
But that 20-minute lull - in a span of more than four hours - cost Vermilion dearly and resulted in a doubleheader split with Northern Division rival Tuesday at Proctor.
After sophomore Lukas Adelman blanked the Norse 10-0 in the opening game, Vermilion blew a 9-3, sixth-inning lead in the nightcap when the Norse sent 12 batters to the plate and tied the score.
Mesabi went on to push across the winning run in the bottom of the seventh and secured the split with a dramatic 10-9 win.
The late-inning meltdown took some of the luster off an otherwise splendid day for the Ironmen, who got superb starting pitching performances from Adelman and fellow sophomore Connor Knettel and ripped 26 hits, including six by freshman Dawson Linkert.

ON THE BENCH - Blake Schaller, Peyton Gregory, Tommy Homer, Owen Brekke and Kaiden Zupancich watch Ty Walker pass the puck in the Pee Wee B State Tournament in Plymouth.

by Tom Coombe -

by Tom Coombe -

Vermilion’s Kaleb Beane returned to familiar territory and made quite a first impression.
The native of Tallahassee, Fla., returned to the Sunshine State for the Ironmen’s season-opening baseball trip and had two strong pithcing performances.
The first was March 8, when he gave up two hits over five innings and pitched the Ironmen to a 9-1 victory over Northern Division rival Mesabi.
Beane’s outing, as well as a strong second start in a 7-1 loss to Division II Lewis and Clark (Ill.) Monday, along with sophomore Kyle Hintz’s gem in a hard-luck 2-1 Tuesday defeat to MN State-Fergus Falls were among the highlights of a weeklong stay for the Ironmen.

Vermilion's Kaleb Beane returned to familiar territory and made quite a first impression.

The native of Tallahassee, Fla., returned to the Sunshine State for the Ironmen's season-opening baseball trip and had two strong pithcing performances.

The first was March 8, when he gave up two hits over five innings and pitched the Ironmen to a 9-1 victory over Northern Division rival Mesabi.

Fellow freshman Chase Bottin had four runs batted in, three on his first career home run, and Dawson Linkert added more freshman punch to the lineup and contributed two hits as VCC gained its only win on a weeklong seven-game junket.

Beane was effective on the mound Tuesday, giving up two earned runs in five innings as VCC fell 7-2 to Lewis and Clark, a Division II scholarship juior college from Illinois.

by Tom Coombe -

Brandon Barbee's last-second putback ended the Ely Timberwolves' season and their bid for a Section 7A boys basketball tournament upset.

Barbee snared an offensive rebound and scored just as time expired, capping off an 8-0 Lakeview Christian Academy run in the last three minutes and giving his Lions a 62-60 7A quarterfinal win Saturday night at Romano Gymnasium on the campus of the University of MInnesota-Duluth.

The sixth-seeded Wolves, who finished 17-11, led for much of the game and went up 60-54 with 2:48 left.

But the Wolves never took another shot and turnovers were deadly down the home stretch.

Barbee tied it up with 1:25 left and the Wolves soon turned the ball over, allowing the third-seeded Lions to hold for the last shot.

The late collapse spoiled a spirited effort by the Wolves, who fell 67-51 to LCA during the regular season and played without injured starting guard Eric Omerza.