Esky Minor Girls Fall In State Championship Game

JACKSON, Mich,---The Escanaba Minor Little League All-Star softball team (age 9-10) had its state tournament run come to an end on Wednesday, losing in the championship game to Georgetown, 10-0. It was a one-run game in the fourth inning before the downstate team scored nine unanswered runs.

The two teams had met in a pool play game on Sunday, and Georgetown cruised to a 19-2 win in three innings.

But on Wednesday, it was a much different game.

Escanaba pitcher Madison Mott kept the Georgetown batters off-balance early on with a steady diet of change-ups, and her teammates played much better defense than in that prior meeting. Breleigh Reinhart made several nice plays at shortstop, and there was a well-executed bunt defense play by Addison Noblet and Chloe Dubord to end the second inning.

The third inning ended on a strong throw from Reinhart at shortstop on a well-hit ground ball by Georgetown clean-up hitter Bella Miller.

Georgetown had a 1-0 lead thanks to a lead-off triple by Autum Dennis and a bunt off the bat of Kylie Reifschneider. But Escanaba was still in the game at the halfway point.

Escanaba simply couldn't hit Georgetown pitcher Allison Wright. She retired all 15 batters she faced, eleven of them on strikes, to throw a perfect game for the state title.

Offensively, Georgetown broke the game open in the fourth inning.

Reifschneider bunted home another run, and another came in from third base on a passed ball.

Escanaba could have gotten out of the inning down just 3-0, but Lilli Timmer came off the benh and drew a walk on a 3-2 pitch.

That flipped the line-up, and the top of the order rattled off four straight hits, with Miller getting a bases-clearing single to break the open.

Wright helped her own cause with an RBI single, and Claire VanderWeile and Reifschneider added RBI singles.

Escanaba, with a roster of just ten players, made it to the championship game with come-from-behind wins in the quarterfinals over Bay County and in the semifinals over Grosse Pointe. But they couldn't put anything together in the title game.

It wrapped up a successful summer for Escanaba Little League, with the Major and Minor softball teams both finishing as state runners-up. In baseball, the Major boys made the state tournament, and the Minor boys were district runners-up.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos, videos taken by Missy Reinhart. And click the AUDIO buttons to listen to a replay of Wednesday's game, inning-by-inning.