Gladstone 9-10 Girls Roll To District Championship
ESCANABA---So, where did all of that come from? One day after the Escanaba and Gladstone 9-10 girls played a classic 1-0 game, the two teams were back on the field and put up a combined 20 runs. Gladstone scored 15 of them, and posted a 15-5 win that propelled the purple girls into the state tournament. Gladstone scored two runs in the first inning, five runs in the second, and two more in the third to take a 9-0 lead. But in the top of the fourth inning, the Gladstone defense sprung a leak, and Escanaba scored five unearned runs to get back into the game at 9-5. But in the bottom of the fourth inning, a bunch of walks and a couple of timely hits allowed Gladstone to score six runs, and end the game on the ten-run mercy rule. She only got credit for one run batted in, but on that shot, three runs certainly would have scored. Trudeau, who also had a strong game catching, went 3-for-3 at the plate and had four runs batted in. Brittany Schwartz added a triple and Andie Balenger had an RBI single in the first inning. Balenger pitched all four innings to earn the victory in the circle. Escanaba used three pitchers. Jalen Olsen took the loss, throwing two innings. Nicole Kamin and Allie Jackson finished up for the Orange and Black. The Gladstone girls will play in the state tournament at Pinery Park near Grand Rapids, with 16 teams from across Michigan entered in the weeklong event. Gladstone will play its first game on Friday, July 27th, at 6:30 against the District Seven champions. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box at the top of this page to see 20 pictures from this game. Thanks to Lisa Dagenais for taking those shots. In the top picture, Brooke Bink is tagged by Trudeau at the plate as Balenger also covers for Gladstone. |