Jacks ride the rollercoaster in bizarre doubleheader split with Spuds

Apr. 24—BEMIDJI — Tuesday was a weird one for the Bemidji High School baseball team at the BSU baseball field.

The Lumberjacks began their doubleheader against Moorhead by falling behind by 16 runs in the first three innings. Then they rallied, and even though it wasn't enough for a miraculous comeback win, it lit a spark to win the second game.

That's the SparkNotes version of how Tuesday played out for BHS.

The Jacks played 14 innings against a Section 8-4A foe, losing 21-13 before winning 9-7. They allowed 28 runs on 24 hits and committed 14 errors. They also scored 22 runs of their own, including eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning in the first game in the first game to avoid the mercy rule.

But when Bemidji needed an arm to step up after a loss, head coach Jim Grimm turned to senior Gavin Kapaun, who restored some normalcy to the Lumberjacks on an atypical evening.

Kapaun exited the first game in the sixth inning after getting hit by a pitch up high, leaving some doubt as to whether or not one of the more seasoned BHS pitchers would get the ball in the latter half of the doubleheader.

Kapaun didn't start the second game, but he might as well have. He relieved Dylan Waukazo five batters into the contest and didn't look back. Kapaun threw four innings, allowing five hits and one earned run while striking out seven batters.

"I just wanted to give my team a chance to get a win," Kapaun said. "In years past, we've always come in sleeping into games, and we've had to come back and fight. I feel like this group is pretty used to that, fighting in games and coming back no matter what the score is."

The Jacks' defensive miscues allowed the Spuds to stay within reach of snubbing Kapaun of the win. He exited the mound after the fourth inning with a two-run lead, giving way to Kobe Brown.

In his first outing at home, Brown was roughed up, allowing a game-winning home run against Duluth Marshall in extra innings. But that's not the version of Brown who showed up on Tuesday.

Brown tossed three shutout innings, recording six strikeouts and allowing just one hit and one walk for his first career save.

"You can't say enough about how they came in," Grimm said. "(Kapaun) saved our butts. He came in and shut them down. He battled and battled and battled. Then Kobe Brown came in and was lights out. We need to see more of that, obviously."It took a lot of guts from them. I don't know; I guess it comes from within a kid to be able to do that. They're showing us a lot of heart, and that's huge. I can't describe how impressive that is because it kept everybody going."

What made a strange night even stranger was Grimm's move to pull a player off the junior varsity team. Trailing by double digits in the first game, Bemidji turned to JD Wood for an offensive boost. However, Wood was suited up with the JV Lumberjacks at Des Sagedahl field on the other side of town.

"We called and had him brought over," Grimm said. "He comes over and here and gets multiple hits. We didn't send for him because we didn't think he could do the job. We practice together, and we know he has a nice swing. He's just behind someone right now. But if another guy has a tough outing, it's up to him to answer the bell. That's what JD did."

Despite ending the night with a win, lingering concerns over Bemidji's defensive issues persist. But with how much the Jacks are producing offensively, it's taking some weight off the shoulders of their pitching staff.

"It definitely helps with your confidence on the mound," Kapaun said. "You can kind of throw riskier pitches and still be relaxed on the mound a little bit more. Getting the (run support) helps more than you realize. I didn't even know (Moorhead) scored in the second inning until we got back to the dugout. I think that says a lot about how easy it is for the pitchers to shake off those (mistakes)."

Even facing a 16-run deficit in the third inning wasn't as discouraging as it seemed to those outside of the dugout.

"At that point, we kind of just said, 'Let's have fun playing baseball," Kapaun said. "Let's see what we can do and see how many runs we can get in. It 100% carried over into the second game."

While Bemidji is 3-4 to open the 2024 season, it wouldn't surprise Grimm if Tuesday was a turning point.

"These guys aren't going to give up," Grimm said. "They're going to stick to the plan. It's huge because if we lost two today after the way we lost that first one, it would've been awfully demoralizing. It would've been hard to come back from two losses like that. Now, you at least have that positive vibe. We found a way to win."

Moorhead 21, Bemidji 13

MHD 31 10 303 1 — 21-17-3

BHS 001 183 0 — 13-12-9

WP: Heinsch (4.1 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 4 BB, 5 K)

LP: Gessner (3.2 IP, 8 H, 10 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 1 K)

Bemidji 9, Moorhead 7

MHD 310 300 0 — 7-7-1

BHS 520 200 X — 9-11-5

WP: Kapaun (4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K)

LP: Kunza (3 IP, 11 H, 9 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 4 K)

S: Brown (3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K)