GLADSTONE---The Gladstone Indians finished the Gregg Johnson Memorial Tournament with a 2-2 record Saturday night, and now the boys will sit and wait to see if that will be good enough for a spot in the tournament's final four.
The Indians beat the Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox, 11-6, Saturday night in a sloppy game played in sloppy conditions. That followed a 10-2 loss to Midland Berryhill earlier in the day that had put the Tribe on the brink of elimination.
But Chief Pontiac beat Escanaba, 7-1, in the other night game, and so now the fourth and final spot depends on the outcome of a make-up game that will be played Sunday morning between Ash-Port and Chief Pontiac.
Ash-Port is 3-0, but has no incentive to play hard, or even to play its starters.
The Wisconsin club is locked into the #3 seed and will play Midland Berryhill in a semifinal in Escanaba at 11:30 Sunday morning. The Indians need Ash-Port to beat Chief Pontiac.
Gladstone or Chief Pontiac will face top-seed DePere in Gladstone at 11:30 Sunday morning. The championship game is at approximately 2:30 in Escanaba.
GLADSTONE 11, SOO CANADA 6---The Indians faced a Black Sox team that had been shut out three straight times in this tournament.
And Gladstone jumped to a 6-0 lead in the second inning before rain returned to the area, making the Don Olsen Field a mess again.
The Black Sox scored four runs in the third inning to make it a 6-4 game, but fortunately, the Gladstone bats were able to keep tacking on runs against the tired and inexperienced Black Sox pitching rotation.
The Indians pitched by committee in this one, with Justin Jurek, Jake Pearson amd Lucas LaCosse all combining to get through those seven innings of baseball. Jared Stenson and Levi Cunningham both had two hits for the Indians.
MIDLAND BERRYHILL 10, GLADSTONE 2---Gladstone gave up seven runs in the first inning to Ash-Port Friday night, and Matt Weyers was taken off the mound for the night. Weyers was back on the hill Saturday against Midland, but Berryhill smacked him around for six runs in the first inning to set the tone for the game.
"There was nothing that Matty did wrong in that first inning," Indians Manager Jim Groleau said. "They had six hits in the inning and four of them were ground balls. That's all you can ask of your pitcher is throw it on the ground. But they found the holes."
One of the RBI hits, by Josh Bailey, took a terrible hop past Indians second baseman Paul Tomaszewski. Later in the inning, Logan Madill got a two-run double when the ball hit the bag at third base and bounced into the left field corner.
Madill got a much more legitimate hit in the third inning when he ripped a two-run double to the fence to make it 8-0.
That was all for Weyers on the mound.
"I probably should have went and got him when I saw that they were on his speed," Groleau said. "But after his outing last night, I wanted him to get his confidence back and throw the ball. He didn't walk anybody."
Groleau brought in his son, Christian, to pitch from there. He put up two scoreless innings before giving up solo home runs to Alex Rapanos and Akin in the fifth inning.
"Our kids played their hearts out," Coach Groleau said. "We're playing against teams with way more area to draw from than we do. We're hanging with them."
Gladstone scored two runs in the third inning on an RBI hit by Hayden Hardwick and an RBI infield hit by Jake Pearson. The Indians had five hits in the game, with Cody Frazer getting a double and the first inning and Lucas LaCosse getting a single in the fifth.
Not nearly enough, though, against the powerhouse Berryhill team.
"They're a good team," Jim Groleau saiud. "Their reputation goes right along with them. It's just disheartening that we didn't make it go seven."
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