Bayside Chatter: Polar title fight to begin

Talk about it

The Polar League softball conference title has become a lot clearer. A Barnum victory at Barnum Tuesday against the Mariners gives the Bombers the title. Mariner wins over Barnum and Carlton gives them the title. Carlton is also in the hunt but cannot win it outright.

The battle for the Polar League baseball title has come down to Floodwood, Moose Lake, Esko and Two Harbors. Agate victories over Moose Lake and Esko would lock up the title for them as they have only one loss compared to two for Moose Lake, Esko and Floodwood.

The Mariner softball team is at Princeton for a softball tournament rescheduled from April 24. Tuesday the Mariners are at Barnum in a battle of the only two remaining unbeaten teams left in the conference. The baseball team will also be at Barnum on Tuesday. All Polar League contests are scheduled for 4 p.m. starts in April and 4:30 p.m. starts in May. The track team will be at Barnum on Wednesday.

Softball rankings

The April 26 softball rankings had Silver Bay at number 10 and Barnum and Cherry tied for second. Since then, Cherry has defeated Barnum 3-1 and undefeated Nashwauk-Keewatin 13-4.

As of right now Cherry is the top seed in the top half of the section and probably the whole section. They are unbeaten in 11 games. But then again, being the favorite and being unbeaten on the final day of section play hasn’t been a great position to be in the last few seasons. In the south half of Section 7A, three teams have emerged from the pack in AlBrook, Carlton and Silver Bay.

AlBrook could have wrapped up the top seed with a win over Carlton but instead fell 18-10 to them and 13-12 to McGregor on the same day. This leaves the Silver Bay-Carlton matchup on May 14 at Silver Bay probably giving the winner the top seed.

Libby Guzzo

Libby Guzzo has received her release from the UMD Bulldogs, by choice, and will play elsewhere for her senior season of remaining eligibility.

Teams combine

Duluth Central and Denfeld will be combined for boys hockey next season and have been placed in Section 7A by the MSHSL for the time being.

The Cotton football program has cashed it in and they have joined up with AlBrook. As a result the Mariners were short a game next season and will now be traveling to Nevis for a game. Following next season, with the mergers and closures in St. Louis County, there should be some major section and conference realignment involving the Mariners.

Hockey

The playoffs in the Western Conference for the Stanley Cup went pretty true to form with the one, two, three and five seeds advancing in San Jose, Chicago, Vancouver and Detroit. In the Eastern Conference, it was the four, six, seven and eight seeds advancing in Pittsburgh, Boston, Philadelphia and Montreal.

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