Agates Post 7th Victory
Duluth News Tribune, May 6, 1967
Two Harbors won its seventh game...
...Two Harbors topped Proctor 5-1 in the top Big Ten Conference game,...
...Two Harbors, now 7-1, hiked its team batting average to .314 and lowered its opponents' mark to .167 as Dave Torgerson won his third straight with an 11-strikeout three-hitter. Curt LaBounty was the top Agate hitter, breaking a 1-1 deadlock with a two-run single in the fourth, then upping the margin with another two-run single in the sixth. Rick Goerts singled in Proctor's run and had two of the Rais' three hits. Two Harbors is at Buhl for a doubleheader today...
Agates Now 9-2; Bat Star Injured
Two Harbors Chronicle & Times, May 11, 1967
The Two Harbors Agates baseball team added four more wins to their season's total this past week, two of them coming in conference games before being beaten 3-2 by Duluth Central in an 11-inning thriller. After edging Cloquet in the conference opener, 2-1, the Agates beat the Proctor Rails, 5-1, and then blasted Buhl in a doubleheader, 5-0 and 11-2. With the four wins and the loss to the Trojans the Agates' record now stands at 9-2 for the season.
Good pitching from Larry Johnson and a relief performance by Dave Torgerson were the keys to the Agates win over Cloquet. A badly bruised Garry Freeman also shared in the heroics when he tripled with two out in the sixth inning. After Adoph Ojard was intentionally passed, a delayed steal with Jerry Ohlund scoring gave the Agates the winning run.
In the Proctor game, the Agates combined the 11-strikeout, three-hit pitching of Torgerson with nine hits of their own to crush the Rails, 5-1. Garry Freeman, Curt LaBounty, and Paul Peterson all contributed two hits to the attack. The Agates moved northward the next day for two games in Coach Northey's hometown of Buhl, and there they made Northey's homecoming a happy one. In the first game Dave Boyce shut the Bulldogs out on three hits while lowering his ERA to 0.65. A bases-loaded single by Ojard in the four-run third inning was the big blow. In the second game, Johnson was limiting the Buhl nine to two hits, but the offense kept stealing the thunder. Three hits apiece by Ojard and LaBounty, including doubles and triples each, paced the 14-hit attack. Freeman contributed two hits, including a triple.
Dave Torgerson pitched with heart and arm Tuesday in an 11-inning contest at Wheeler, but injuries, an error, and one of the four hits allowed by Torgy brought defeat. While the Agates were banging out nine hits of their own, the lack of the timely hit hurt them. Torgerson continued to keep the Trojans at bay, after a fine baserunning job by Jerry Ohlund tied the score at two-all in the sixth.
For Coach Northey the Central game was a double loss. In the fourth inning Adoph Ojard was hit on the cheekbone with a pitched ball and had to be removed from the game and taken to the hospital. The Agates catcher, and leading hitter, will be out indefinitely. "Adolph's loss is certainly a big one to us," Northey remarked. "It is not just a matter of the big bat, but it is what he has been doing for us as a leader as well. Adolph was at the peak of his best season, and his hustle and desire had been instrumental in our reaching the top. How much we depended on him will be determined in the next few games."
Still Northey was not ready to sign surrender terms. "Ojard was lost to us in the fourth inning, and still a valiant bunch of Agates held on, pressured Central hard, before finally being beaten in the eleventh. One key hit over seven innings and we could have come home winners. These kids are playing like champs. Maybe that is because that is what they want."