INDIANA-BOUND! JUNIORS WIN STATE TITLE!

MONTAGUE, Mich.---The last time it happened, Bill Clinton was the president of the United States, the Florida Marlins beat the Cleveland Indians in a seven-game World Series, and most of the guys on the field in Montague this week weren't even born yet.

The year was 1997, when the Gladstone Junior Boys, led by a Soo Hill boy named Kurt Lauscher, led his team to a state championship and a spot in the Central Regional tournament in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Well, fast-forward to 2012, and there is no dominating player on the Delta County Junior Boys team like Lauscher. But this group of ten guys are all interchangable parts in a machine that has earned District Ten's first Michigan state championship in the Junior Baseball bracket since that 1997 Gladstone team did it.

The DC All-Stars picked up a hard-earned 3-1 win Monday over a better-than-expected Richmond All-Star team to win a state championship and a trip to regionals.

"It's a long time coming and it feels great," Delta County Manager Tony Punzel said.

"I'm super happy right now," DC outfielder Justin Popelka said. "Our team worked really well, and our pitching was spot on. Hunter Garling and Nick Aird came in and pitched really well. I played OK. I could have played better, but hey, our team won, right?"

Richmond had entered the semifinals with a 1-2 record and eeked into the bracket play via a tiebreaker out of pool play. The first clue that this District Seven team was pretty good should have come when Richmond took a 6-0 lead and held on to beat Taylor, 6-5, in Sunday's second semifinal game.

Richmond pitcher David McKie

But the Richmond team was still flying under the radar, and Coach Punzel hadn't seen that team play in person during the entire tournament.

"I had a nice strategy for this one," Punzel grinned. "I won the coin flip, but I took visitor on purpose because I thought that we were gonna jump up on them and stay up on them. But we jumped up on them later, and I guess that's all that matters."

Well, the DC boys were unable to get much offense going, but managed to scratch across enough runs to make it work, as the pitching and defense continued to be stellar.

The game was scoreless entering the fourth inning. That's when Logan Lamb hit a double to center, moved up on a ground out, and scored on a wild pitch. The other two runs came in the sixth inning, when Hunter Garling drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch.

Garling stole second and went to third as the ball was thrown into center field.

Then Lamb hit one just out of the reach of Richmond right fielder Andrew Hamel to plate the team's second run. And then after Lamb stole second, Nick Aird came through with an RBI single to right to make it a 3-0 game.

Hunter Garling went 5 1/3 innings.

But Richmond was far from done. Garling, who threw just 69 pitches in five innings and kept the Richmond team off-balance, started to run out of gas in the bottom of the sixth inning. He walked Max Fahrney and Jordan Cates on eight pitches, so Aird came on.

"It was really hot and I was sweating," said Garling, who admitted that he ran out of gas in the sixth inning. "I think my fastball, curveball, and change-up were working."

Aird gave up a hit to Matt Poppe to load the bases with just one out, but he got Matt Skoryanc on strikes and Jake Stewart to ground out.

Aird's cool pitching in a pressure situation kept it 3-0, and Richmond left the bases loaded for the second time.

Now, one of the main reasons the game was still this close was the play of Cates in center field. He made diving catch after diving catch for Richmond throughout the game. Cates made eight catches in all, including three that were dives and another where he ran 60 yards to get underneath a sure double.

"If it wasn't for their center fielder, we probably would have had 15 runs," Coach Punzel said, maybe exaggerating a little. "One time, we had two runners on and he took away our runs. I wanted to, early, to test his arm (sending a runner from third), but I got scared. The way he runs, he probably throws that good, too."

Justin Popelka at the plate for DC

"Everything we hit, that center fielder robbed it," Garling aded.

Cates made all three putouts in the top of the seventh inning, including two of them in "you've got to be kidding me" fashion. So, it was 3-0 in the bottom of the inning.

And Richmond made one last stand.

Stefan Fenwick, who was frustrated by a called third strike earlier and had failed on two bunt attempts, put down a perfect bunt single to start the inning. Then after a pop up, David McKie got a base hit to put two men on.

Then, Aird hit Hamel to load the bases.

Final Out For Championship

But Aird got tough from there. He got Fahrney to ground back to him (scoring a run from third), and then with the tying run at second base, Cates hit the first pitch into the air. LaMarch caught at short, and the party was on.

"I was super nervous," LaMarch admitted. "I was shaking. It got stuck in the sun for a little bit, and I was about to call Brandon's name, but it came back down and I could make an out."

Jake "Rizzo" Peterson's bad back again.

And how about Aird? Performing on the mound again, in the clutch.

"The kid is a gamer," Coach Punzel said. "I can remember back in 2009 when he came in and did the same thing in the (travel ball) semifinals and pitched in the bottom of the eighth inning to get us out of it."

"I was feeling some pressure when I pegged that guy and the bases were loaded," Aird said. "But then Hunter came through catching that fly ball. I was just really happy and I started jumping up and down, and all those fans were crazy."

Richmond outhit Delta County, 8-5. But the boys from District Seven stranded 11 base runners in the game. Garling earned the pitching win, going 5 1/3 innings, allowing no runs on six hits. He struck out five and walked three. Aird got his second save in as many days, working 1 2/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits.

The State Championship Out.

McKie took the loss for Richmond, although he did the best job of any pitcher here of keeping the DC batting order in check. He gave up all three runs (two earned) on five hits. He struck out five and walked one. Fahrney retired all four men he faced in relief.

Delta County will represent Michigan in the Central Regional at Fort Wayne, and WCHT-AM (600) will be there to broadcast the games live.

The first game is scheduled for 7:30 ET Saturday night against North Canton, Ohio, LL.

The boys' games will also be broadcast on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see numerous photos and videos taken by Kammie Burks. Also, audio highlights from the game, and brief interviews with all ten DC boys.