“I thought we did a pretty nice job today,” Gladstone Manager Tyler Swanson said. “We strand a lot of baserunners. We don't apologize for wins at tournament time. It doesn't matter how, it doesn't matter what happened. If you get a 'W', you never apologize. We took care of business.”

The Braves didn't have much dramatic offense, but they did what they had to do to move runners along. One guy who did perform at the plate was junior Casey Alworden, who had three hits in the tournament.

“A lot of fastballs, honestly, I didn't see too much off-speed today,” Alworden said. “I just tried to get the barrel on the ball. We just have to keep playing clean baseball, keep having fun, put the bat on the ball, and we'll go far.”

It seemed that while no Gladstone players were flashy in this somewhat-blah tournament, everybody did something to help out at some point.

“I don't do too much, but when they need me, I try to help the best I can,” Braves senior Kaden Gibbs said. “I haven't played baseball in like eight years, but I figured, it's my senior, let's do it. If they need me to run the bases, well, I love it, just turn the burners on, you know.”

And what about winning a district championship, and scoring a run as a pinch runner all the way from first base in the championship game?

“It's awesome,” Gibbs said. “It's fun. It's something new that I just finally got to join this year and come back and play with all my friends. Casey and everyone. One last time.”

Swanson says that is more important than most people realize.

“It's been awesome,” he said. “We've got guys who've accepted their role. Everybody wants to be out there playing, but they've done a nice job accepting that this is their role and realizing that at any moment, Gibby can go in there and score from first base."

"There's not a lot of guys who score all the way from first on that play. That's the reason we put him out there. It's not, just because (to be nice), there's a reason behind all of those things. I'm super happy with all of the guys.”

The Braves cruised to the 11-1 win over the Emeralds after struggling to put away the Cougars team, which is made up of kids from Munising, Mid Peninsula, and Superior Central High Schools.

The Cougars took a 1-0 lead on a base hit by Blake Tanner, a walk, and error, and a sacrifice fly by Trent Rutter. Gladstone stranded the bases loaded in the first inning without scoring a run, but finally got on the board with three runs in the second inning. The Braves took advantage of an error, a hit batter, and a run-scoring hit by Casey Alworden to grab the 3-1 lead.

The Braves added another run in the fourth inning when Alworden singled, stole both second and third bases, and scored on a gap shot off the bat of Nate Young. SC center fielder Blake Walther made an incredible diving catch, robbing Young of extra bases, making him settle for a sac fly and a 4-1 lead.

Trent Rutter did his best to keep the Cougars in the game, throwing six innings, scattering seven hits. He gave up an RBI hit to Alworden in the top of the sixth inning that gave the Braves a 5-1 lead, but then Gladstone had to hang on in the bottom half as the Cougars mounted a rally.

Gladstone pitcher Isaac Ketchum had kept the Cougars off the board, at one point retiring nine straight batters. But in the bottom of the sixth inning, he gave up a one-out single to Bradly VanDamme and then walked Walther. Ketchum was relieved by Austin Pepin, and things got interesting as Ketchum, now playing at second base, committed an error and Pepin walked Logan Frusti to force in a run.

With the score 5-2, and the bases loaded, Pepin was able to get two straight fly balls to end the threat.

Then in the seventh inning, Cooper Sanville walked Andrew Cain to start the inning, but he got the final three outs to earn the save, sending the Braves into the district final.

Meanwhile, Manistique faced Newberry in the other semifinal, and the Emeralds easily won. Scoring seven runs in the first inning and six more in the second. They eventually beat the Indians, 18-4, in five innings, as Newberry finished its season with an 0-19 record.

The Emeralds got two-run base hits from Cooper Curtis, Alex Noble, and Mason Tryan in that first inning, and then Curtis and Kody Brudvik both got RBI hits in the second inning. Curtis threw all five innings of the mercy-shortened game to earn the win on the mound for Manistique.

Matthew Luebkert had a two-run single for the Indians in a losing effort. He also took the loss on the mound, getting charged with 13 runs (eleven earned). He hit seven Emeralds batters with pitches.

That set up the championship game, and the Braves jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning against Emeralds pitcher Isaiah Brow. Young had an RBI hit, Rex Kelly a run-scoring ground ball, and a wile pitch scored those runs for Gladstone.

Gladstone added three runs in the third inning, and two more in the fifth, with Johnny Soderman contributing an RBI double in that fifth inning. They put it away with three more runs in the sixth inning.

The Emeralds never got close to hitting the freshman pitcher Sanville. He allowed just one infield single to Parker Graphos, but the next batter, Britt Frain, was erased off an outstanding play by Gavin Frossard from deep third base. Frossard ranged over, fielded it cleanly, and whipped a strike to first base to retire Frain.

The next inning, Alworden had even more outstanding play at shortstop as he literally robbed Brow of a base hit when he got to a bullet of a shot ticketed toward left field, and fired to third base to get a force out.

Brow took the loss for Manistique, allowing six runs (one earned) in 2 1/3 innings of work. Graphos finished up, going 3 2/3 innings, giving up five runs (all earned) on six hits.

Manistique, which did not play a single home game this season because of problems with its field at the Schoolcraft County Fairgrounds, ended its season with a 9-16 record.

As for the Braves, they win another Division Three District Championship, and will now host the regional semifinal game Wednesday afternoon. The opponent is still to be determined, as the other district in the Copper Country was rained out, and will be played on Sunday.

The Gladstone game will be broadcast live on Maverick 106.3 FM. More details on that to follow.