MARQUETTE---The Post 44 Reds 15u baseball team won two tight games on Sunday to take the state championship of the newly-formed Michigan Vetarans Baseball league, 3-2 and 4-3 over the Sault Ste. Marie (Ontario) Black Sox.
The games were moved to Marquette's Haley Field after heavy rains caused flooding at the tournament site in Felch.
In the second championship game, the Reds scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to walk it off on a Trey Niemi infield single. Preston Cromell had three hits and he threw a complete game on the mound for Post 44.
The Reds trailed, 3-1, with three outs to play with. Cromell led off with a hit, Wes Robinson drewryva walk, and Rudy Orlich followed with a base hit to make it 3-2. Then Easton Jezewski followed with a base hit to bring home the tying run.
An intentional walk loaded the bases before Niemi's grounder between the mound and third base was good enough to bring home the championship-winning run.
Sunday's first game saw the Reds get three runs in the second inning and hold off the Canadians the rest of the way. An RBI base hits by Taylor Manis put the Reds in front, and then Evan Brown drove home two runs to make it 3-0.
Bryce Perrott had a two-run single for the Black Sox in the fourth inning to bring his team to within 3-2, but the Canadians could not get the tying run against Robinson, who pitched a complete game for the Reds. He allowed only two hits while striking out ten batters. Robinson walked five while throwing 98 pitches.
That game set up the dramatic winner-take-all second championship contest, which the Reds pulled out with a big last-inning rally.
The Michigan Veterans Baseball league was created after long-running disputes between Upper Peninsula baseball teams and the American Legion Department of Michigan, with the vast majority of U.P. teams breaking away from Legion and creatihg this new league.
