Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear post-game comments from Gladstone's Logan DeMay and Mykey Runne.

QUINNESEC---The Gladstone Major Little League All-Stars (age 11-12) used strong pitching and defense to win their district tournament opener over Iron Mountain North, 3-1, Friday evening at the Quinnesec Field.
 

Logan DeMay threw the first 1 1/3 innings of scoreless and hitless ball before being removed after throwing 20 pitches. Mykey Runne took care of it from there, with 4 2/3 innings of pitching, scattering three hits, and walking three batters.

“Their first four hitters, they were good hitters, but I managed to get them out,” Runne said. “I threw a lot of strikes. I tried to focus on accuracy, not pitching fast. Just get it into the strike zone.”

That strategy worked, although he had to hang on in the final inning as Iron Mountain tried for a last-minute comeback. Troy Copisky led off with a walk, went to second on a fly ball, and scored on a base hit by James Powell. After a groundout, Runne walked Marty Husing on a 3-2 pitch. But he got Carter Mueller to ground out to end the game.

The game was scoreless until the fourth inning when Scout Rosinski smacked a two-out double. He came home with the first run of the game on a single by DeMay.

“I just kept trying to give our batters some tips, like head down, load early, and drive the ball, so we could get some points,” DeMay said. “I felt really good because, at first, I thought it was going to be a very close game, but then after we started getting some runs, I was like, we may win this!”

They did because in the fifth inning, Carter Roman walked and then Mason Soper put down a grounder on the third base side for an infield single. The throw was poor to first base, so Roman scored. Landon Amis followed with a hot shot up the middle for a run-scoring single, giving Gladstone a 3-0 lead that the boys would not squander.

Gladstone's defense was strong, turning a pair of double plays on line drves off the bats of unlucky Iron Mountain batters. The first, hit by Carter Mueller on a liner by DeMay to end the third inning, and then the second, a liner by Jeb Holsworth, went to the outfield, and it ended  the fourth inning on an 8-3 double play.
 

Danny Doers threw well for Iron Mountain, going five innings and allowing only four base hits. Tanner Helminen tossed the final inning for Iron Mountain.

Gladstone advances to the second round, and will face Norway at 3:00 ET/2:00 CT on Saturday. The game will be broadcast live on FM-93.5, AM-600, and www.rrnsports.com across Delta County, and on AM-1450 across Dickinson County.

Iron Mountain drops to the loser's bracket and will face Escanaba Sunday afternoon at 2:00 ET/1:00 CT in Quinnesec. The winner of this tournament will play in the 16-team state tournament in two weeks in Grosse Pointe.