Great season ends at state semifinals

Season-ending losses in Battle Creek, home of the Michigan High School Athletic Association state finals, can be difficult to accept. A loss, such as the one Rogers City suffered in the Division IV state semifinal game against Bay City All Saints (31-9-1) Friday, 2-1, can leave a lasting pain. The Hurons baseball team (27-12) was looking to advance to the state title game for the first time in school history, after four trips to the final four over the years.

Rogers City was one out away from moving on in the top of the seventh inning when the Cougars? center fielder Nathan Fritz tripled to right field, scoring both runners on the bases and erasing a one-run lead held by the Hurons since the first inning. Senior pitcher Adam LaLonde pitched the game of his career for the orange and black, tossing a no-hitter through five-and-2/3-of-an-inning, and a one hitter through more than six innings.

IT LOOKED LIKE coach Howard Madsen would get his first championship game at C.O. Brown Stadium Saturday morning at Bailey Park, and the excitement started to build in the Rogers City dugout in the top of the seventh, until the big blow from Bay City. ?We all played our hearts out every game, especially in the post-season,? said catcher Tim Cercone. Cercone said LaLonde did the job on the mound and gave the Hurons a chance to win.

?It was awesome,? said Madsen of LaLonde?s performance. ?We thought that going in that he would be the guy who could shut them down because they looked like they were a fastball-hitting team.? LaLonde faced 27 batters, throwing 46 strikes. He struck out two and walked two. ?Adam was hitting his spots (and) had his ?A? game today,? said Cercone.

?It was disappointing, sure,? Madsen said, ?but I think we played up to our abilities the whole tournament and it was difficult to deal with that kind of a loss.?

AFTER ALL SAINTS went down one-two-three in the top of the first, the Hurons got one run in the bottom of the inning. Cody Wenzel walked and advanced to third on a Tim Cercone single with one out. LaLonde got the run in with a sacrifice fly ball to right field. Wenzel slid in ahead of the throw and Rogers City had its only run of the game. After the first inning, Cougar starter Tom Hine threw two-hit ball himself. Ben Basel had a hit in the second inning but was left stranded.

LaLonde reached first base on a throwing error in the fourth inning and attempted to advance to second when the ball got by the first baseman and was gunned down at second on what the Rogers City coaches believe was a call that didn?t go their way. Chris Rhode walked on a 3-0 count and Nathan Darga reached base on an error, which may have scored the run, but the Hurons left the two runners on.

THE LAST SCORING threat for the Hurons was in the fifth when Wenzel singled through the left side with one out and stole second. A line out and a ground out and Wenzel was left at second. Clinging to a 1-0 lead, Rogers City had momentum on it side. All Saints clean-up hitter Scott Biskup flied out to Darga in right for the first out in the seventh. Andy Spyhalski was hit by a pitch and took first, bringing to the plate Mike Gorzenski who hit a shot off the chest of third baseman Cody Wenzel. Wenzel, who was tagged with an error, gathered up the ball and fired to Basel at first where the umpire called Gorzenski safe.

Video of the play, which was aired on television in slow motion, showed the throw beat him, but the inning went on. With runners at first and second, the next batter flied to center fielder Justin Kelley, which would have been the final out if the call at first would have gone RC?s way.

THE NUMBER EIGHT hitter Nathan Fritz hit the first pitch from LaLonde

for a two-RBI triple. ?On this particular day, he was the guy I like to see up there. He was the only one hitting the ball squarely,? said All Saints coach Mike Regulski. The Cougars had stunned the Hurons and held on to the 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning when Hine set down the final three batters.

?We came into this game and we had it — and we lost it — and that?s the way it is now. We had an awesome run,? said Judd Vekaryasz. All Saints, which defeated Posen in the Division IV state championship game 3-1 in 2000, lost 6-5 to Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest in the final game of the season.

?I think we made a statement as to where the program is at,? said Madsen. ?I really think we?ll be back there.? Madsen will have to reload next year with the graduation of two senior pitchers, Vekaryasz and LaLonde, along with starters Darga, Kelley, and Cercone.

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