by Anthony Bush
Forty years ago, the 1977 Rails baseball team began the season set on proving that the previous year was not a fluke. In 1976, as if they were in a storybook, the Rails reached the state tournament for the first time in school history after posting a 4–10 regular season record and finishing last in the 10-team Lake Superior Conference (LSC).
The players had to adjust to a change before any games were played in ’77, for Rich Petersson had replaced Dave Anderson as the coach. Anderson had stepped down after nine seasons. Petersson told The Mallet school newspaper as the season began, “I haven’t had that much experience coaching baseball because there weren’t teams in the schools in which I taught. I’ve played a lot of softball and the strategy is pretty much the same.”
Regardless of the coaching turnover, the team lost just four players to graduation and its entire pitching staff remained intact. Dale Nikko had seven of the eight wins in ’76 as a sophomore, with then-freshman Dennis Gulbranson earning the other. Anderson used just one other pitcher all season, Nikko’s classmate Mike Grover.
Whatever strategies Petersson utilized from his softball-playing days worked wonders, and the Rails proved they were not a “flash in the pan.”
Led by the pitching of Nikko (10–1 W–L, 1.72 ERA), Grover (2–2, 2.55), and Gulbranson (2–0, 2.57), and the hitting of Joe Gaboury (.386 batting average), John Baublitz (.333), Jay Nelson (.321), Bill Kuzas (.311), Nikko (.294), Jeff Merling (.290), and Grover (.259), the Rails captured their first conference championship and second straight sub-region championship in 1977. They also established a team record for wins that lasted 33 years.
The season started on April 14 with a 12–5 non-conference win at Aurora Hoyt-Lakes. Grover hit a home run and Nikko struck out 10 batters.
Nikko picked up his second win in the first game of a non-conference doubleheader at Moose Lake on April 23. He tossed a one-hitter with 12 strikeouts in the Rails’ 13–0 victory. The Lakers’ Bruce Lohman had 14 strikeouts as he countered with his own shutout in the second game, a 5–0 result.
Proctor was down to its last out in its first LSC game, at home against Hermantown on April 26, before Gaboury knocked a bases-loaded, walk-off hit for a 3–2 win. Nikko allowed just five hits and had 10 strikeouts for his third win.
Next, the Rails swept a non-conference doubleheader from Northwestern, 8–0 and 16–12, on April 30. Grover tossed a one-hitter in the first game, and Nikko earned the win in relief of Gulbranson in the second.
Gulbranson took a shutout into the last inning in a 3–1 LSC win against Duluth East at Wade Stadium on May 2.
Proctor suffered its lone LSC defeat on May 3 at Silver Bay, by a 6–2 score. Winning pitcher Ray Thomas struck out 12 batters and Kasey Frank’s three-run home run in the sixth padded the Mariners’ lead. Nelson picked up the loss with four innings of relief in his only pitching appearance of the season.
Proctor edged Cloquet, 3–2 in nine innings, at home on May 6. Grover’s walk-off hit plated Merling, who scored all three runs. Baublitz’s RBI hit with two outs in the bottom of the seventh tied the score at 2–2. Nikko out-dueled the Lumberjacks’ Mike Krzenski to make his record 5–0 on the season. Krzenski allowed three hits while Nikko tossed a five-hitter.
Gulbranson earned the win in a 4–2 LSC victory over Duluth Cathedral on May 10.
Duluth Central swiped four bases in the first three innings of the LSC home game on May 12, but Nikko put an end to the running game with two pick-offs in the fourth. Four consecutive fifth-inning hits by Grover, Baublitz, Nelson, and Gaboury—with the last two being doubles—erased Central’s 4–3 lead and Proctor prevailed, 7–4, as Nikko retired eight of the last nine batters he faced for his sixth win against zero losses. Central dropped to 11–3 (5–1 in the LSC) while Proctor improved to 9–2 (and also 5–1 in the LSC).
Proctor recovered from an 11–1 non-conference loss at Superior on May 14 to defeat LSC foe Duluth Morgan Park, 7–6, on May 19.
The Rails faced Duluth Denfeld at Hermantown on May 21. A win would clinch a tie for the conference title, and they had Nikko on the mound. He allowed just two hits through five innings as Proctor led, 4–0, but he pulled a hamstring muscle on a stolen base attempt in the sixth and had to leave the game. Gulbranson, on in relief, walked the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the seventh. Grover came on and walked in a run and allowed another run before retiring the side to record a save in the nail-biting 4–2 win.
The Lake Superior Conference was only in its third year of existence. Hermantown won it in 1975 and Cloquet in ’76. Prior to the LSC, Proctor played in the Northeast Minnesota Big 10 Conference (1963-74), and the NE Minn. Big Nine Conference before that. The 1977 season marked the first baseball conference championship in school history.
Next up was a Sub-Region 3 playoffs game at Wade Stadium on May 24. Nikko recovered from his leg injury to throw a one-hit shutout against Duluth East as the Rails cruised to a 6–0 win. Proctor would face Two Harbors for the Sub-Region 3 championship, for the Agates squeaked by Aurora-Hoyt Lakes, 2–1, in the other bracket.
Before the two teams met for the Sub-Region crown, they needed to button up the regular season since their May 17 game was rained out. The Rails traveled to Two Harbors on May 26 and came away with a 9–1 victory, which gave them the LSC title outright. Grover allowed just two hits and amassed 16 strikeouts.
They met again at Wade Stadium on June 2. Nikko wasn’t sharp, but he limited the Agates to two runs as he improved to 10–0 on the season with a 6–2 win. Baublitz, Nelson, Gaboury, and Kuzas hit four consecutive singles in the third for a 3–1 lead that was never surrendered. With the Sub-Region 3 trophy in hand once again, the Rails moved on to the four-team Region 7AA Tournament for the second year in a row. In fact, all four teams from the 1976 tournament returned to the party. Cambridge represented Sub-Region 1; Denfeld, Sub-Region 2; and Grand Rapids, Sub-Region 4.
Proctor faced Cambridge at Princeton on June 6 at 8:30 p.m., knowing the winner would face Grand Rapids and its ace flame-thrower, Jim Jetland, for the Region 7AA championship and a state tournament berth. ’Rapids improved to 16 wins against one loss with a 2–1 victory over Denfeld in the earlier game.
Proctor went with Nikko on the mound and Cambridge countered with Tony Duff, who had thrown four shutouts during the season.
It took Nikko a few innings to settle in. Two walks and an error loaded the bases in the top of the first, but the Bluejackets were unable to score. A walk, a sacrifice bunt, and two wild pitches gave Cambridge a 1–0 lead in the second. The visitors took a 2–0 lead in the third on two hits and an error.
Grover’s RBI single in the bottom of the third plated Mark Anderson for a 2–1 score, which remained stagnant until Proctor was down to its last chance in the bottom of the seventh. Gaboury led off with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a ground out, and scored the tying run on an RBI ground out by Anderson. The game extended to extra innings.
Cambridge’s botched suicide squeeze play ruined its bases-loaded opportunity to score in the eighth. Baublitz singled and reached third base with one out in the bottom of the frame, but that’s as far as he got.
Todd Burnquist hit an RBI double for the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth. Proctor, unable to counter in its half, lost 3–2. Nikko suffered his first and only defeat of the season.
Grand Rapids downed Cambridge, 5–0, the following day for the first of eight straight Region 7AA championships.
The 1977 Rails ended the season with a 14–4 win-loss record, smashing the program’s previous record of nine wins in a season set in 1971. The record lasted until the 2010 team won 15 games; the 2011 team now holds the record with 22 wins.
Nikko’s 10 wins in ’77 is still the school single-season record. Jake Lewis has come the closest, with eight wins apiece in 2011 and 2012.
Nikko broke his own school record for pitching strikeouts in a season in ’77. He had 91 in 1976 and 94 in 1977. Only two Rails pitchers have struck out more batters in a season since then. Mike Grover had 95 in 1978 and Ray Miles had 100 in 1982.
Players from the 1977 squad who later played baseball for UMD are Gaboury (he also played football for the Bulldogs), Jason Malec, Nelson, and Nikko.
Proctor started a string of six consecutive winning seasons in 1977. During Petersson’s 14-year coaching tenure, the Rails won five sub-region and three conference championships. They reached the Region 7AA championship game in 1978, 1982, and 1984, but lost to Grand Rapids each time. Petersson’s 131 wins is the most among all of Proctor’s baseball coaches. He received the Jim Dimick Retired Coach Award from the Minnesota State High School Baseball Coaches Association in 2016.
(Photos by the Duluth Herald's Joey McLeister)
Caption #1: "Proctor's Dale Nikko shows the form that won him his 10th game without a loss Thursday as the Rails downed Two Harbors 6-2 for the Sub-Region 3 championship. The Rails will face Cambridge in Region 7AA semifinals Monday at Princeton at 8:30 p.m." (Duluth Herald, June 3, 1977)
Caption #2: "Proctor's Mark Anderson does a little hop as East's Don Stenberg breaks up a doubleplay attempt in the seventh inning of their game Tuesday. Stenberg was out when Anderson took the throw from shortstop John Baublitz." (Duluth Herald, May 25, 1977)
