Late Thursday
Hermantown 7, Proctor 6
Duluth News Tribune, May 19, 2001

The Hawks banged out 12 hits in Proctor and won when Nate Taran scored in the top of the eighth.

Taran, B.J. Radovich, Steve Henry and Todd Mell had two hits each and winning pitcher Danny Wagner had three. Wagner pitched the final three innings, allowing no runs.

Proctor, which had two hits from Scott Wojtysiak, scored four runs in the fifth to take a 5-4 lead before Hermantown battled back to send it to extra innings.

Hardballers duke in out with H-town, Hunters in nail biters

Anytime Proctor and Hermantown meet in any athletic competition record books can be tossed aside, for faw emotions brought on by a fierce rivalry are going to preside every single time. Virtually the same is true when the Rails and Denfeld Hunters clash. Such was the case last week when Proctor hosted the Hawks in the second half of a Wed. twi-light doubleheader and on Thurs. against Denfeld in a solo game.

Proctor played host to Duluth East at the earlier game Wed. with a disappointing score of 13-1. In that game, senior [sic] Mike Pehl crossed home plate in the bottom of the first inning for the Rails' lone run of the game.

H'town 7, Proctor 6 - in extra innings

Proctor managed to regroup for the second game of this doubleheader, playing host to Hermantown. This was a delay from a game begun Tues. afternoon. Proctor held the early lead in that by a 4-2 margin when dense fog began to roll in. For the safety of the players the game was set to be replayed on Wednesday.

In make-up action, Hermantown got out to a 2-0 lead in the first two innings. The next two inning saw the Hawks plating three more runs, for the 4-0 lead. Things looked extremely bleak for Proctor, as Hermantown refused to yield a single run through the first four and a half innings. Then in the bottom half of the fifth inning, with two out, Proctor bats exploded to life for five unanswered runs for a 5-4 lead. Proctor fans were ecstatic.

Hermantown answered in the top half of the sixth with a run to knot the score at 5-5. That five-run tie is where things stood at the end of seven innings, sending play into extra innings. It looked as though things were going to be all over in the top of the seventh. Hermantown had runners at first and second with two outs. A Hawks' batter took his place at the plate, but before Proctor hurler Jake Vanderscheuren could begin his move towards the plate, the Hermantown batter stepped out of the batter's box. The home plate umpire's arms went up in the air signaling time-out. Vanderscheuren came out of his stance only to have the field umpire cry out "balk," an improper call given the fact there was time out on the field. Despite the wrong call, the runners were allowed to second and third bases because of the called balk putting both players in easy scoring position and eliminating the force-out at any base for the Rails' defense. It turned out the pitching skill of Proctor allowed them to escape the half inning unscathed to force play into extra innings.

Top of the eighth inning play saw Hermantown take the one-run 7-6 lead.

Second half of the inning action looked good for the Rails as Scott Wojtysiak smacked a one-out single to short left field. He moved into scoring position by stealing second base, before heading to third on a sacrifice groundout [sic] by Nate Ellison.

Unfortunately, a pop-out to the shortstop ended the game before Wojtysiak could cross home plate.

(Proctor Journal, May 24, 2001)