SWEET REPEAT: Indians Win State Championship

MENOMINEE---The Gladstone Indians American Legion baseball team won its second straight Class A state championship on Sunday, beating the Menominee Red Wave, 11-4, at Spies Field. It was the second straight summer that the Indians beat the Red Wave from the loser's bracket. And Menominee was runners-up for a the third straight year.

"We have a totally different crew from last year with only a couple of guys returning," Gladstone Manager Justin Jurek said. "It's pretty exciting to get these guys a state championship, too. It took a lot of guts. These guys really gutted it out."

"I'm really happy that we got to do this again," Gladstone third baseman Tyson Seymour, one of the two returning "seniors", said. "It's been an unreal feeling, and an unreal adventure. I thought last year would be my last year, but I noticed that they (high school players) made a great run, so I was like, 'I want to do it again with these guys', and I did everything I could to make that happen."

"I'm proud of the young guys," Gladstone'a other senior, catcher Braeden Lamberg, said. "Honestly, I think they can make it here again next year."

Gladstone scored six runs in the top of the first inning off Menominee starting pitcher Alex Hanson. Tyson Seymour drove home Braeden Lamberg with a triple, then Jared Crow brought in a run with a sacrifice fly. Cooper Cadavdeas smoked a two-run double to make it 4-0, then Ben Kelly got a base hit to right field to bring home another run.

Lamberg's RBI single made it a 6-0 game.

"That boosted us, for sure," Lamberg said of the big inning. "I thought we were going to come out flat like we have in other games recently. But I'm happy that in the first inning we got ahead, because it's usually the second or third inning. I'm pretty proud of them."

For Menominee, it was absolutely deflating.

"When you put up a six-spot like that, now they (Indians) were relaxed, and we were in a panic mode," Menominee Manager John Lauzer said. "You could see our heads go down a little bit. But, again, that's 18-year-old kids playing baseball."

After a 28-minute rain delay in the second inning, Gladstone starting pitcher Ian Schwalbach served up a double play ground ball to Kyle Porath to end the inning.

Then in the third inning, Schwalbach rain into trouble when a two-out bloop single to center field by Andrew Schroeder extended the inning. Schwalbach hit a batter, then walked the next two men, to force in Menominee's first run.

Riley Baldovski, who was on the Junior Indians team until the very end of the season, stepped up with a strong relief pitching performance to earn the win. He tossed 4 1/3 innings of relief after coming on with the bases loaded in the third inning.

Baldovski got a fly ball to get out of that jam, then allowed four hits and walked just one batter over the final four innings to earn the victory.

For him, it was a dream come true.

"I would have thought that I would come up here, sit the bench, maybe went in to bat a few times, but I ended up pitching a state championship," Baldovski said. "Something I never thought would happen, but I guess we're here, and we won it all."

"I knew I had to just go in there and throw strikes. I knew I had a strong defense behind me."

"He did exactly what we asked him to do," Jurek said. "He went out there and threw strikes. We knew he was capable of going out and throwing strikes, so we were pretty comfortable with putting him out there."

Gladstone was on cruise control from there, especially after Lamberg tripled home Zach Hanson and Seymour brought Lamberg home with a ground ball to short.

The Indians scored two more runs in the fifth inning when Cavadeas smoked another double, Hanson walked (he walked four times in the game), and both scored on an error.

That made it a 10-1 game, and even though the Indians gave two runs back in the bottom of the inning on a Jason Janquart double and two errors, it was pretty much over.

Alex Hanson, who will play baseball at Bay College next year, took the loss by giving up all six first inning runs. Schroeder came on in relief and threw all 105 of his allowed pitches, allowing four runs. Dante Sartorelli finished up for Menominee.

For Gladstone, Schwalbach went 2 2/3 innings, which is not long enough to qualify for a pitching victory. He gave up just one run, however.

The win goes to Baldovski, who went 4 1/3 innings, allowing four base hits.

Lamberg, meanwhile, was chosen the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Matt Delfosse, Kyle Struve, and Janquart all had two hits for Menominee, which finished the season with a 14-15 record, and state runners-up again.

"It's not what we wanted," Lauzer said. "That's three years in a row for us. But I'm still happy for this team. I mean, they're a bunch of good kids."

While Jurek credited his team for its toughness, that was most exemplified by Dan Martin, who played in right field after being hit in the eye with a pitch in Saturday's game. Martin said there was no way he was missing Sunday's game.

"I just had to make sure I focused on the ball really hard," Martin said. "My vision out of the left (eye) was a little fuzzy, but it worked for me!"

Gladstone finished 29-6, winning its third state championship in five years (2014, 2017, 2018).

The young team was led by two veterans: Seymour (Muskegon Community College) and Lamberg, who will play next year at Delta College in Saginaw. The Indians celebrated their championship with a parade through the streets of Gladstone Sunday night.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Cole Hansen. Also watch videos of several post-game interviews, listen to audio of other post-game interviews.