ALGER COUNTY SWEEP: Major Boys Teams Win

GLADSTONE---It was Alger County 2, Delta County 0, in the Major Boys (age 11-12) district tournament on Saturday in Gladstone after Munising beat Gladstone, 6-1, and Tri-County topped Escanaba, 7-4. The results pushed eliminated Escanaba from further tournament play, while Gladstone was knocked into the loser's bracket.

MUNISING 6, GLADSTONE 1---The Munising boys played a near perfect game in pulling the upset over the hosts. Pitcher Hayden Rockhill was on his game, often painting the outside corner of the plate to get ahead of the hitters.

Rockhill struck out seven batters and walked just two in 5 1/3 innings before running out of pitches on his pitch count. Blake Walther got the final two outs, making an nice defensive play of his own.

Gladstone had plenty of baserunners, but could not get a timely hit, stranding ten runners, including two runners in four different innings.

Munising, meanwhile, hit the ball hard against four different Gladstone picthers, and the boys gave Rockhill some breathing room with a three-run first inning. Gladstone committed four errors in that first inning, and Rockhill helped his own cause with a run-scoring double. He also had an RBI single in the second inning to make it 4-0.

Kane Nebel continued his hot hitting for Munising with a single and double. Ashton Wymer also had two hits. Gladstone's Aedan Creten had two doubles in a losing effort.

TRI-COUNTY 7, ESCANABA 4---Escanaba's All-Star season came to an end as Tri-County scored five runs in the second inning and held on from there. Tri-County had five hits in that second inning, with Connor Himes, Paavo Mannisto, and Jacob Charlebois getting RBI hits.

The biggest hit was a two-run single by Hudsen Cady.

Michael Englund threw well for Tri-County, except for the third inning, when he walked four batters and uncorked three wild pitches to score runs for Escanaba.

Englund recovered to retire five straight batters in the fourth and fifth innings before running out of pitches on his pitch count. Englund did not allow a base hit in 4 2/3 innings of pitching.

Mannisto came on in relief and gave up a bad-hop hit to Reily Husky and a bunt single to Andy Lehto. He also walked two batters in the sixth inning, but got Chase Cloutier to pop up to end the game. Kaden Brown took the loss on the mound for Escanaba, giving up seven runs on seven hits and three walks in four innings of work.

Tri-County faces Iron Mountain North at 4:00 ET Sunday in Gladstone in another elimination game. Munising plays Kingsford in the winners bracket at 6:00 ET.

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