Junior Boys ride four-game winning streak into district final

The Junior Boys from the Rogers City Little League program were looking for a two-game sweep of Petoskey in the district championship series to earn a chance to advance in the state tournament. The local all-stars have won four straight games, in relatively easy fashion, over North Emmet (19-1), Onaway (17-4), Tri-Rivers (19-11), and the latest win came Tuesday against Cheboygan by a score of 12-4. The tournament started with a loss last Friday against host team Petoskey, 7-5. The boys dropped into the losers? bracket and haven?t lost since. Rogers City needed to win Wednesday (past press time) to earn a chance at eliminating Petoskey in a winner-takes-all championship game at Petoskey. The Junior Boys were the only team still alive in the tournament as of Wednesday with the elimination of the Junior Girls in Alpena. On Tuesday, Rogers City scored five runs in the first inning with pitcher Aaron Romel and the defense doing the rest. The score was 8-1 heading into the seventh inning, when Rogers City added four more runs. Tyson Klecha, Scott Grulke, Josh Curtis, Justin LaPointe, and Matt Mertz all collected two hits apiece.

On Monday, Tri-Rivers couldn?t keep up with Rogers City, which scored five runs in the first and six in the second. Tri-Rivers scored five runs in the third, but still lacked the firepower to get any closer than five runs. Grulke got the win on the mound and had a double and a single. LaPointe added a pair of doubles and was four-for-six. Against Onaway Sunday, another five-run first got the game started on a positive note, and then the all-stars broke the game wide open with five runs in the third and fourth innings. Most of the damage was done by batters five through nine. Alex Lemmon had a homer and a triple, while Matt Mertz was three-for-four with three runs scored. Ben Tulgestke and Pat Quaine knocked in three runs each. The winning pitcher was Jordan Zempel. After losing in the tournament opener against Petoskey, Rogers City came back with a vengeance with five runs in the first inning, six in the second, and five more in the fourth inning, on the way to a dominating performance against North Emmet. Grulke was the winning pitcher for Rogers City.

Mertz had four RBI in the contest, while Grulke and Romel scored all four times they got on base. LaPointe was three-for-four with a pair of doubles. Quaine was three-for-four with two runs scored. Petoskey scored three runs in the third inning and two insurance runs in the sixth to hand Rogers City its only loss. LaPointe took the loss in the evenly-matched contest. Grulke had a two-run homer and a double.

Junior Girls

The girls could not overcome two big innings against East Jordan in their bid to advance to the state tournament at Tecumseh. The best-of-three sectional games were played Tuesday at the Huron Shore baseball fields in Alpena. Rogers City was in a 5-0 hole after the first inning, but came back and kept the game close. The final was 8-3 with Sammie Brege taking the loss. Patti Getzmeyer had a double to knock in three of her five RBI, but the girls couldn?t hold the lead when they needed to. On top 8-6, East Jordan came back to score sevens runs in the fifth inning in the second game. The final in the season-ending loss was 15-12. Janice Ciarkowski was tagged with the loss.

Major Girls

The Major Girl all-stars were 1-2 at the state finals played at St. Clair over the weekend. Rogers City was matched up against Essexville-Hampton, the defending state champs, who were fourth at the Little League World Series last year. There were seven walks in the first inning. The coaches said the girls struggled and were not into it mentally in the 13-0 mercy-shortened game. The only two hits came from Erika Kuznicki and Lindsay Ponik. In the second game Saturday, Rogers City sent Gladwin home after an impressive 12-0 victory. Leanne Buczkowski was two-for-three with a single and a home run which cleared the fence. Leilani Kortman was the winning pitcher and went two-for-three. The tournament resumed on Monday as Rogers City and Grandville went into extra innings. Rogers City had a 3-1 lead in the sixth, but Grandville came back with two runs to send the game into extra frames, and two more to win the contest, 5-3. Logan Schuiteman took the loss, while Buczkowski ripped a triple.

Major Boys

The Major Boys all-stars were one win away from advancing to state, but lost in the district cha

mpionship game to Petoskey, 4-3, and were eliminated from the tournament. Dylan Kortman had a bases-clearing double, while Greg Tulgetske was two-for-three. Alex Jozwiak turned in an outstanding effort on the mound for Rogers City. The district title game was set up when the boys edged Petoskey 3-1 on the strong pitching performance of Jesse Wilbert and his 11 strikeouts. Austin Brege was two-for-three. Brege scored the game-winning run on a ball hit in the infield by Chris Peacock. Brege was called safe when he slid in to give Rogers City a 5-4 win over Harbor Springs. Kortman was four-for-four.

Minor Girls

It was the team to bat last that was going to win in the Minor Girls series between Onaway and Rogers City. Both times the coin flip went to Onaway. In the bottom of the sixth inning last Thursday, Onaway took a one-run lead away to win 14-13. It was Onaway?s first-ever district title in the Minor Girls division. Monica Urban and Anna Couture were both three-for-four in the district final series, while Sabryna Urban made a terrific running catch. It was Rogers City?s second one-run loss to Onaway in the tournament. The girls earned the right to play for the district banner with a 21-4 blowout win last Wednesday against North Emmet. Cassie Brege was the winning pitcher on the mound and collected three hits. Brenna Hincka was two-for-two with four runs scored, while Nikki LaLonde was two-for-two with three runs scored.