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Gladstone Capture Baseball, Softball District Titles
 GLADSTONE---The Gladstone High School baseball and softball teams won district championships on Saturday, earning spots in next week's regional tournament in Charlevoix. It wasn't easy, though, as the Braves were challenged all day long. The boys beat Superior Central, 6-3, in the semifinals, and then topped Menominee, 10-0, in a championship game that was scoreless in the sixth inning. The girls topped Manistique, 11-2, and then battled past Iron Mountain, 12-6, in a game that was tied at 6-6 in the fifth inning.  And both Gladstone teams will face Boyne City next Saturday afternoon. The Braves' district opponents did not roll over. In the girls championship game, the Braves took a 6-1 lead before the Mountaineers rallied to tie the contest at 6-6. But Morgan Letteriello smoked a grand slam home run to put the Braves ahead to stay. Taelor Zeise, brought up from the junior varsity squad for these playoffs, hit a home run as well. Kaitlyn Hardwick also went deep for the Braves. The boys district games all had some drama to them, starting with the Menominee-Newberry semifinal contest Saturday morning. The Indians led, 4-1, in the bottom of the seventh inning, but the Maroons rallied. A two-run single by Buddy Beyer tied it, and then Dante Sartorelli camethrough with the walk-off RBI base hit. The next semifinal saw Gladstone senior Clay Cole battle Superior Central/Munising junior Clayton Smith in a pitcher's duel for most of the way. Smith's big problem was walks (six, plus he hit two batters), while Cole walked only one man.  And Lucas Weinert squeezed home a run with a bunt single of his own in the seventh inning. Owen Hanson ripped an RBI double, although he was thrown out at third base. The Cougars, a co-op team with Munising, didn't hit Cole hard, with one major exception: a long three-run homer to right field by Eli Werner in the sixth inning. That cut Gladstone's lead to 5-3, but the Cougars could get no closer. In the championship game, it was a typcial Gladstone-Menominee battle, even though this is Menominee's first year of varsity baseball. The Gladstone and Menominee American Legion teams met in the state finals last summer, with Gladstone winning the championship in come-from-behind fashion. Saturday's district title game was tied at 0-0 through four innings as Menominee pitcher Keagan Monroe battled Gladstone's Jared Crow to a standstill.  Weinert added an RBI double, Hanson had another RBI single, and Shea also contributed an RBI single. The only time they managed to retire Shea all day long (either opponent) was on an excellent catch by Maroons shortstop Zach Starzynski in left-center field. Crow went 5 2/3 innings before giving way to Shea after he gave up a hit to Jason Janquart and walked two batters. Shea got the final out when Ethan Russell hit one to third base, where Weinert made a difficult play with a runner in front of him. Gladstone put the game away on the mercy rule in the bottom of the sixth inning on three straight hits by Lamberg, Cody Frappier, and Martin. Both the Gladstone boys and girls play the Boyne City Ramblers in the regional semifinals at 12:00 noon next Saturday in Charlevoix. The other semifinal for the girls, at 10 a.m., will feature Negaunee and Traverse City St. Francis. The other semi for the boys will see Calumet try to upend top-ranked St. Francis, also at 10 a.m. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Laura Lamberg and Brenda Crow. Also, listen to interviews with Weinert, Cole, Manager Don Lauscher, Menominee's Dante Sartorelli, and softball senior Taylor Hunter.  |
