MIDLAND---The tournament trail came to an end for the Negaunee Junior Little League (14u) All-Stars on Friday, as the boys lost to Shepherd, Mich., 12-0, amd fell to SE Polk County, Iowa, 10-2. The boys finished in fifth place out of the nine teams entered in the field.
“I've got to give them credit,” Negaunee Manager Terry Tincknell said. “Shepherd is a heck of a ball team. Iowa is a heck of a ball team. They've got a lot of games under their belts and a lot of experience, and it showed today. We're not on the travel ball circuit. We're just a home team. And it showed.”
The Negaunee players had mixed emotions: sadness, but also, a sense of accomplishment.
“This is one of the best summers I've ever had,” said infielder Ethan Gaston said, choking back tears, “I hated to see it end. I've loved every moment from being on this team. I'm proud of the people on this team, and of the people who have supported us. We just didn't do the little things, like basic plays that we should do every time, hitting the ball, pitching strikes, everything. It was just not our day.”
“We had to start off stronger, we had to do it earlier,” outfielder Peyton Black added, also with tears in his eyes. “We can't wait until the last moment. I know a whole lot of the team is very down, bummed. But, I mean, you've just got to accept it. There's good teams down here. Great teams. We can't let them get up at all. We have to get up on top of them and we just couldn't today.”
Shepherd, the team from host District One, played three Little League All-Star games to win a district title. They played more than 40 travel ball games together, and they were sharp in winning their first two games of this Central Regional by a combined score of 27-2.
But Negaunee hung in there deep into the game.
Easton Danalstine hit a solo home run off Negaunee pitcher Mason Swenor in the first inning, but Swenor held down that powerful offense for three straight scoreless innings after that. And Negaunee had several chances to tie the game.
Negaunee had two on with one out in the first inning after receiving a walk and an error, but Brayden Gleason popped up and Killean Ryan was called out on strikes. Negaunee had a runner on second base in the second inning when Black singled and stole second, but Drake Ayotte struck out.
The best chance was the third inning when Vince Tincknell drew a one-out walk, and with two out, Max Frustaglio also walked. That brought up Evan Dellangelo, by far the team's hottest hitter. And Dellangelo delivered, smoking a line drive base hit up the middle. Tincknell came around third to try to score the tying run, but a strong throw to the plate easily retired Tincknell by ten feet.
It was still a 1-0 game in the fifth inning. But that's when the wheels fell off for Negaunee, when Shepherd scored eight runs. Four walks, including back-to-back free passes to the #12 and #13 batters in the order. Two errors in the inning hurt, and RBI hits by Noah Clevenger, Charlie Robinson and Mason Eisenburger helped Shepherd pull away, knocking Negaunee into the loser's bracket.
Negaunee faced off against the Iowa state champions, who had lost their first tournament game and then won three straight games to get to this game.
Negaunee took the lead in the first inning when Swenor led off the game with a single, moved to second on a groundout, and scored on an error. But an RBI double in the bottom of the inning by Cody Winegar tied the game, and he scored on an error.
A walk and an error gave SE Polk another run in the second inning, and then two runs came in on a walk, base hit, and another Negaunee error in the fourth inning to make it a 5-1 game.
Negaunee scored a late run when Swenor was safe on an error, stole second and third bases, and came home on a wild pitch. But by that time, Negaunee was too far behind, and the tournament run came to an abrupt end with the 10-2 loss.
The game was delayed for about 20 minutes when Negaunee filed an official protest after a SE Polk player faked a bunt and then took a full swing. Tincknell pulled his team off the field while the protest was filed with the Central Regional office in Indianapolis. Negaunee lost the protest, with the decision being that there is no rule against that.
Tincknell, in his first time as an All-Star manager, was proud of his guys' effort.
“They kept fighting,” Tincknell said of his guys. “They never gave up. We had some nice hits, but it just went right to them. We had some tough calls that didn't go our way. We've got to keep things in perspective. But, I'm super disappointed because I really felt like we were going to take a couple of games. I know we're good enough. It just didn't work out.”
“We kind of gave it away against Shepherd,” Black said. “It got a little embarrassing, to be honest. To be sitting there in right field, and sitting on the bench after I hurt my thumb, I just kind of had to watch it. I think after we got down, we just couldn't pick ourselves back up.”
