Minor girls take third at state tournament in Port Huron
A young group of girls from Posen and Rogers City made their communities proud at the Minor Girls state tournament in Port Huron. A magical nine days was capped with a parade of firetrucks and vehicles honking horns through the streets of Rogers City Sunday afternoon. The all-stars finished third in the state after winning five of the seven games they played, and carried a four game winning streak into their final contest, a loss to Mattawan, 12-0, last Saturday.
The girls advanced to the final four with a win over Gladstone, 8-6, last Thursday, and defeated Huron, 9-4, Friday, before dropping the final game to Mattawan, which was to play West Portage on Sunday for the state championship.
MATTAWAN SCORED five runs in the first inning against Rogers City, two in the second, and five in the third. Coach Jay Schuiteman said Mattawan outsized his squad a bit, which may have intimidated them, but the coach still believes his girls had a chance to win. They just couldn?t get much going. There were only two base runners in the first three innings.
Lindsay Ponik got one of her two hits to lead off the second inning and Emily Marx walked in the third. Arriving in Port Huron, Schuiteman thought there were only two teams that could give Rogers City trouble, and Mattawan was one of them. The other team went home before Rogers City. In their win over Huron, Rogers City scored three runs in the first inning, and led 5-0 after three.
Huron scored two in the fourth but Rogers County countered with four runs over the last two innings to put the game away. Ponik was three-for-four with three runs scored. LeAnne Buczkowski and Marx went two-for-four. Karlee Wilk went one-for-three with two runs scored.
IN THE WIN against Gladstone, the all-stars let their guard down a bit, after taking an early lead. The girls scored two in both the first and second innings, and kept the Gladstone players on their heels, after not allowing the opponent to score in a bases-loaded situation in the first inning. Nice defensive plays by LeAnn Strzelecki and Logan Schuiteman kept Gladstone off the scoreboard, as Rogers City scored three runs in the third inning, and was on top 7-0. The score was 8-1 going into the bottom of the fifth when Gladstone started bunting. Schuiteman said the girls didn?t handle it very well, opening the door for the comeback. Rogers City?s lead was trimmed to four in the fifth and two in the sixth.
After a solo homer by Gladstone to make it 8-6, pitcher Katie Darga walked the next two batters, but struck out the next hitter on a full-count, to earn the win. Schuiteman said Marx received high praise from the Mattawan coach, who was scouting Rogers City, and called the young catcher the best at the tournamen
ROGERS CITY mercied Marquette, 19-8, August 6, scoring 11 runs in the second inning to blow the contest wide open. Katie Darga, Marx, and Buczkowski all went three-for-three, while Ponik earned her second win of the tournament on the mound. The defensive play of the game came from Wilk playing rightfield, who fired a relay to first baseman Leilani Kortman, who threw to Schuiteman playing third for an out. The tag was applied to the runner trying to stretch the play into a triple. ?That play took the wind out of their (Marquette?s) sails,? said Schuiteman. The loss eliminated Marquette from the tournament.
Rogers City had a 2-1 record going into the win over Marquette, defeating Southtown on opening day, 17-9 and Tecumseh, 8-1, August 5. The other loss came to Hudsonville, 19-6. The tournament run started July 22 with a wild 10-9 win over Cheboygan at Little League Park in Rogers City. The district crown was earned the next day, as Rogers City swept Cheboygan, 17-3.