Escanaba Major Girls Suffer Power Outage At States
GLADSTONE---The Escanaba Major Girls (age 11-12) gave up three runs in the first inning of their state tournament opener on Friday, and it was too tall of a hill to climb as the girls dropped a 5-2 decision to Taylor East-West out of District Five. The result means that Escanaba will likely have to beat both Negaunee and South Portage this weekend to advance to Monday's state quarterfinal round.
Katie Wilson on second base after her hit.
Escanaba actually took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Emily Bruntgens was safe on an error, advanced two bases on a passed ball, and scored on a grounder by Hannah Edington. But the District Five champions scored three in the bottom of the inning off of Edington as Hannah Hall ripped a shot to the fence to score two runs, and she kept running when the Esky defense couldn't handle the throw back to the infield. Taylor scored two runs without a base hit in the third inning, and Roberts appeared to be on cruise control entering the final inning. At one point, she retired 13 Esky batters in a row. But Wilson got things started with that bunt single. Then Bruntjens put down a bunt. Then McInerney had a bunt single. With the bases loaded and no outs, Edington's infield grounder was fielded, but the throw to the plate was late, and it was a 5-2 ballgame. All of a sudden, Escanaba had the tying run on base.
Taylor pitcher Kara Roberts threw well.
Edington took the loss in the circle, giving up five runs on four hits. Escanaba faces Negaunee in the Yooper Bowl as pool play continues on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on WCHT-AM (600) and on-line at rrnsports.com starting at 12:00. All of Friday's scores are posted here . See more pictures in the above box. Friday, July 13, 2012 D7 St. Clair 20, D3 Jackson West 0 D5 Taylor East-West 5, D10 Escanaba 2 D2 South Portage 18, D11 Negaunee 1 D16 Tecumseh 11, D15 Constantine-White Pigeon 1 D9 Western Grand Rapids 19, D14 Essexville-Hampton 3 |