Posen eliminated from the tournament in 14 innings
Saturday?s Division IV District championship game, pitting the co-champions of the North Star League, turned into two classic games for the price of one. Hillman and Posen met on the diamond for the third time this season, but with much more at stake. The squads had split their regular season games and through seven innings of the title contest in Onaway, a winner could not be decided. The evenly-matched teams played six extra innings and still could not decide a winner. The deadlock would not be broken until the top of the 14th inning. Unfortunately, though, the Vikings ended up with the season-ending loss to their softball rival, 2-1.
The Vikings (25-7) scored early, putting their lone tally of the contest on the board in the first, and then failed to get another runner to third. ?I thought we would put the ball in play a lot better than we did,? said coach Glen Budnick. ?Unfortunately, we just didn?t do that today.? The Viking batters made 15 pop-up outs in the contest.
HILLMAN TIED the game came in the fourth on an RBI-single. Tiger pitcher Brianne Herbek helped get in the winning run by blistering a shot by third baseman Jenny Ciarkowski, who couldn?t get the leather on the ball, and was tagged with an error. The inning started with a leadoff walk. The runner was then sacrificed to second. The next batter grounded out for out number two, but Herbek, who ended the Rogers City game with a hit in the bottom of the ninth inning, pulled the first pitch toward Ciarkowski.
The score stayed at 2-1 in the bottom of the 14th with Posen getting one more chance to extend the game, or possibility take the lead. It just wasn?t meant to be. The North Star League MVP, Beth Julian, smoked the hardest-hit ball of the game to deep left field, but Hillman coach Gary Bisson had his fielders playing deep, and the out was made. Courtney Romel singled on the next play and the next two Vikings went down in order.
?Brianne did a good job of mixing up her pitches,? said Budnick. ?I think we popped up enough to last us a whole season. It?s a credit to her, she did the job of placing the ball in locations that would make us do that. We didn?t take advantage of our opportunities.?
THE DEFENSE kept Posen in the game by throwing out the lead runner at home in the third, fourth, and eleventh innings. ?I told them to not be ashamed of anything that you have done,? said Budnick. ?The seniors won four league titles in a row. Every class that comes in after them is going to have to try and reach that level.? Julian was deserving of the win on the mound, and would be practicing for regionals today, if only there had been a little more run support. She had nine strikeouts. Budnick said that?s been the story with his up and down offense all season.
?It?s sad to lose a game after 14 innings, unfortunately somebody had to lose, but I?m sure it?s something these young girls won?t forget,? said Budnick.
THE VIKES reached the district title game with a 3-2 win over Atlanta. Again, hits were hard to come by, with only six against the Huskies. Tough pitching by Julian and good defense helped the Vikings eliminate the Huskies. It looked like it was going to be another easy one as Dorothy Romel had a two-RBI triple, giving Posen a 3-1 lead early. The bases were loaded with nobody out in the second inning, but the next three batters went down, and the scoring chances were far and few between from that point on. Linsey Walker drove in a run in the fourth, but baserunning blunders by the Huskies ended any more scoring. It also took the sails out of Atlanta as Julian was lights out the rest of the way, setting down the next nine batters to end the game. She receive
THE VIKINGS split against Oscoda last Wednesday in the last games played on the home field. Posen shutout the Owls in game one, 10-0, but dropped the second contest, 5-2. Hits were not hard to come by in the mercy-shortened game. Mary Calhoun was three-for-four with a triple and a RBI. While one-hitting the Owls through four innings, Julian had a double, single, and a RBI at the plate. Emily Perrault was three-for-three and knocked in two, while Roxann Hincka and Lewandowski both had two hits each.
Ciarkowski took the loss in the second game as the Vikes could only get seven hits. She was relieved by Julian and Brittany Styma, who threw three pitches and got three outs in the final regular season game of the season.