SAGINAW, Mich.---The tournament trail came to an end on Sunday for the Gladstone Major Little League All-Star baseball team.
Gladstone rallied from a 6-1 deficit to tie the game against Taylor North, but lost on a three-run homer by Taylor's Brexton Runyon, 9-6, in the state tournament pool play finale at South Saginaw Little League.
Gladstone ends up finishing 0-3 at the state tournament despite scoring 24 runs in those three games. That's normally enough to win games at this level, but Gladstone lost because it gave up 36 runs in those three games.
“I was happy with our hitting,” Gladstone Manager Dave Ellison said. “But before this game, we threw 271 pitches in two games. It's really, really hard to win baseball games and be that inefficient, and walk that many people. When you top that with nine errors, its just hard. We just didn't play our game the way I know we can. The walks and errors just eat you up.”
Taylor North scored two runs in the first inning on a base hit by Austin Boyless, but Gladstone's Elliot Bosk singled home a run in the second inning to make it 2-1.
Taylor scored four times in the third inning to go up 6-1, with catcher Chase Johnson capping off that inning with a two-run double. But Gladstone wasn't done, proving again that it can score runs, even when it can't stop the other team from scoring.
Gladstone took advantage of two Taylor errors that kept the inning alive, and Joe McDondald, Landon Stearns, AJ Wills, and Bosk strung together run-scoring hits to tie the game at 6-6.
Gladstone had a chance to take the lead in the fourth inning when Mason Soper and Elliott Pankonian led off with back-to-back singles. But Taylor pitcher Daniel Delaney got two strikeouts and a fly out to keep the game tied.
And then in the fifth inning, Maddox Basonetti and Delaney got base hits against Gladstone pitcher Mason Holochowost. And Runyan found a pitch that he liked, smoking it over the right field fence to put Taylor ahead, 9-6.
Delaney retired six of the final seven men he faced to seal the Taylor victory. They will advance to the state quarterfinals for a game against Ira Township Monday at 5:00.
For Gladstone, the long trip downstate ended without a win. But Ellison says there was a lot for his team to be proud of.
“I just wanted them to enjoy the process,” Ellison said. “Yesterday, they were really down on themselves because we really wanted to make it out of pool play. But today, they were playing against a good team, and they were laughing and talking. That's what baseball is all about. I want them to enjoy it, and I want them to keep playing. That's the goal.”
"It was pretty fun, but I wish we would've went farther," AJ Wils said. "I felt pretty good about how I played today. I had a single and a double, so that was exciting. I wish we would've scored a few more runs, but it is what it is."
